Kid Nichols
The 30-year-old rookie phenom who won 30 games seven times in a 10-year span, Kid Nichols remains the youngest pitcher ever to reach 300 career victories. He accomplished this feat at age 30 in 1900, a record that will never be broken in the modern era of pitch counts and five-man rotations.
Nichols dominated the 1890s with a devastating curveball and pinpoint control, posting a 127 ERA+ across his career while averaging over 300 innings per season during his prime. His 362 wins rank seventh all-time, but it's the efficiency that sets him apart — he needed just 17 seasons to get there, compared to 22 for Cy Young.
The Boston Beaneaters ace threw with surgical precision in an era of wild pitchers, walking fewer than two batters per nine innings throughout most of his career. His 1897 season stands as perhaps his masterpiece: 31 wins against just 11 losses with a microscopic 2.64 ERA in 368 innings pitched.
Career · Hitting
15 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1890 | BSN | 49 | 174 | 0 | 23 | .247 | — | — |
| 1891 | BSN | 52 | 183 | 0 | 27 | .197 | — | — |
| 1892 | BSN | 57 | 197 | 2 | 21 | .203 | — | — |
| 1893 | BSN | 53 | 177 | 2 | 26 | .220 | — | — |
| 1894 | BSN | 51 | 170 | 0 | 34 | .294 | — | — |
| 1895 | BSN | 49 | 161 | 0 | 18 | .230 | — | — |
| 1896 | BSN | 51 | 147 | 1 | 24 | .190 | — | — |
| 1897 | BSN | 46 | 147 | 3 | 28 | .265 | — | — |
| 1898 | BSN | 51 | 158 | 2 | 23 | .241 | — | — |
| 1899 | BSN | 42 | 136 | 1 | 12 | .191 | — | — |
| 1900 | BSN | 29 | 90 | 1 | 7 | .200 | — | — |
| 1901 | BSN | 55 | 163 | 4 | 28 | .282 | — | — |
| 1904 | STL | 36 | 109 | 0 | 5 | .156 | — | — |
| 1905 | PHI | 25 | 75 | 0 | 2 | .200 | — | — |
| 1906 | PHI | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .000 | — | — |
| Career | 650 | 2090 | 16 | 278 | .226 | — | — | |
Career · Pitching
15 seasons| Year | Team | G | IP | W | L | ERA | ERA+ | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1890 | BSN | 48 | 424.0 | 27 | 19 | 2.23 | 174 | 222 | 1.146 |
| 1891 | BSN | 52 | 425.3 | 30 | 17 | 2.39 | 147 | 240 | 1.213 |
| 1892 | BSN | 53 | 453.0 | 35 | 16 | 2.84 | 115 | 192 | 1.159 |
| 1893 | BSN | 52 | 425.0 | 34 | 14 | 3.52 | 132 | 94 | 1.280 |
| 1894 | BSN | 50 | 407.0 | 32 | 13 | 4.75 | 112 | 113 | 1.496 |
| 1895 | BSN | 48 | 390.7 | 27 | 16 | 3.41 | 140 | 148 | 1.341 |
| 1896 | BSN | 49 | 372.3 | 30 | 14 | 2.83 | 154 | 102 | 1.311 |
| 1897 | BSN | 46 | 368.0 | 31 | 11 | 2.64 | 163 | 127 | 1.168 |
| 1898 | BSN | 50 | 388.0 | 31 | 12 | 2.13 | 169 | 138 | 1.034 |
| 1899 | BSN | 42 | 343.3 | 21 | 19 | 2.99 | 129 | 108 | 1.188 |
| 1900 | BSN | 29 | 231.3 | 13 | 16 | 3.07 | 120 | 53 | 1.241 |
| 1901 | BSN | 38 | 321.0 | 19 | 16 | 3.22 | 108 | 143 | 1.234 |
| 1904 | STL | 36 | 317.0 | 21 | 13 | 2.02 | 132 | 134 | 1.003 |
| 1905 | PHI | 24 | 190.3 | 11 | 11 | 3.12 | 90 | 66 | 1.256 |
| 1906 | PHI | 4 | 11.0 | 0 | 1 | 9.82 | 27 | 1 | 2.727 |
| Career | 621 | 5067.2 | 362 | 208 | — | — | 1881 | — | |
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.