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CalvnHobs6
04-26-2004, 09:38 PM
He's playing the Cubs today, and through 3 innings, he has 7 K's, and has only given up one hit. Who got the hit? His opposing starter - Carlos Zambrano. Do the math - the complete game at this rate will give him 21 K's.

yagmaster
04-26-2004, 10:08 PM
Randy is incredible. Except for a bad year (due to and injured knee) last year, he's had almost a decade of utter dominance. He should pass Tom Seaver this year for most strikeouts ever for a lefty, and don't expect him to stop there. He's still got some years left, as long as he can still throw 96 MPH.

About tonight, I don't think he'll break the record, but he's still so much fun to watch pitch. He's got great control with his fastball, and has one of the best sliders ever. The way he backdoors that thing against righties is amazing. And with his splitter, unstoppable.

yeszir
04-27-2004, 06:00 AM
Amazing outing by Johnson. Far from breaking any records, but amazing nonetheless. His line:

R. Johnson (W, 2-2) 7.0 2 0 0 0 10 0 3.28

GrassInZimsTeeth
04-27-2004, 12:01 PM
One of my biggest pet peeves is the Sox brass behaving like the MFY. Going out and getting these mercenaries are a nice luxury, but it's essentially saying "if our farm system can't bring happiness then we'll try to buy it". Not that everyone needs a Moneyball system of doing baseball, but there's a happy medium in there. Yeah we needed a closer, so we got Foulke. Schilling was ready to talk, so here he is. But look at our team the list goes on... Manny, Pedro, Damon.... They're all on that list. It's not to the extreme of the MFY, but you have to lump them all in with Kevin Brown, Gary Sheffield, Vazquez, Mussina, and Giambi. Talking about adding A-Rod, or God forbid if we got A-Rod, puts it over the top. The Unit falls along the same lines. Just bully your way to the top. It's not old fashioned, it's just baseball. I like it when the bread and butter is to develop players (Nomar), sign under valued free agents (Ortiz, Todd Walker, Mueller) trade for young talent (Varitek and Lowe for Slocumb was just cruel and unusual) and trade away when guys peak in value (Hillenbrand for BK). Mixing in the occasional Pedro or Manny is fair game, but going ballistic and trying to sign A-Rod, Schilling, Foulke and now potentially RJ is too Steinbrenner-esque. We're only going to be a dynasty if we can stay resourceful and not blow everything on buzz factor.

I'd be very happy and very sad if we would have won it this year with A-Rod. I'm glad he's George's problem to deal with.

yeszir
04-27-2004, 01:26 PM
Thats the main reason I was against the A-rod deal grassinzimsteeth. That'll get to be a mouthful eventually, but I love your name. And your avatar. :D Welcome to the site.

Anyway, to see the Red Sox on almost the same plane as the yankees was upsetting to me, as it was to others.

Tek04
04-28-2004, 06:36 PM
RJ is a strike out machine....but hasnt been as good as the old RJ these past two yeas

DuffyCliff
04-29-2004, 01:04 AM
Randy Johnson still has it and I personally would be surprised if he doesn't strikeout 300 batters for a SEVENTH time this season. He defies mortality. He's like.. God, really. How does he do it? He was throwing GAS, and he still has his filthy slider.

Johnson has really thrown the ball great in his last three outings. After a couple of "so-so's" against the Rockies and Cards, Johnson threw a complete game shutout against the Padres. In Milwaukee, he had allowed only 1 ER through 6 2/3 while striking out 11 before he threw some wild pitches and mislocated a slider on his 125th pitch that ultimately blew the game. Then last night he comes out blazing and ends up striking out 10 through 7 shutout innings. If the D-Backs hadn't been up by 9 runs, he would've finished it. You could tell he was upset.

RJ's Recent Dominance:

Year - IP - SO

1997 - 213.0 - 291
1998 - 244.2 - 329
1999 - 271.2 - 364
2000 - 248.2 - 347
2001 - 249.2 - 372
2002 - 260.0 - 334

Career K's: 3,913 (4th)
Career K/9 IP: 11.16 (1st)
Career Double-Digit K Games: 193 (2nd)
Career 15+ K Games: 27 (1st)
300+ Strikeout seasons: 6 (T-1st)
Single-season best K's: 372 (3rd)
Single-season K/9 IP: 13.41 (1st)
Single-season Double-Digit K Games: 23 (T-1st)
Single-season 15+ K Games: 6 (T-1st)


Obviously the career numbers are all-time marks and single-season are for bests in just that.

He is going to pass Carlton for 3rd, and I think he'll pass Clemens as well. He deserves to be heir to Ryan. He is by far, more of a strikeout legend than Clemens is. Sure, Clemens has two 20 K games. How about for a season? He's never struck out 300. For comparison, Pedro has done that twice. He's had a K/9 of over 10 just once and his carer K/9 is three fewer than Johnson. Not only that, but Johnson is within 212 K's of him despite starting 161 FEWER career games!


All-Time K/9 IP Leaders

11.16 - Randy Johnson
10.50 - Pedro Martinez
9.55 - Nolan Ryan
9.27 - Sandy Koufax
8.86 - Sam McDowell

8.62 - Roger Clemens (8th)


Single-season K Bests

383 - Nolan Ryan (1973)
382 - Sandy Koufax (1965)
372 - Randy Johnson (2001)
367 - Nolan Ryan (1974)
364 - Randy Johnson (1999)


292 - Roger Clemens (1997) - 27th

Single-Season K/9 IP Bests

13.41 - Randy Johnson (2001)
13.20 - Pedro Martinez (1999)
12.58 - Kerry Wood (1998)
12.56 - Randy Johnson (2000)
12.35 - Randy Johnson (1995)
12.30 - Randy Johnson (1997)
12.12 - Randy Johnson (1998)
12.06 - Randy Johnson (1999)
11.78 - Pedro Martinez (2000)
11.56 - Randy Johnson (2002)

10.39 - Roger Clemens (1998) - 30th

Seasons with 300 or more K's

6 - Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson
3 - Curt Schilling, Sandy Koufax
2 - Pedro Martinez, Walter Johnson, Rube Waddell, Sam McDowell, J.R. Richard

0 - Clemens (NOT ON THE LIST!!!!)

Career Double-Digit Strikeout Games

215 - Nolan Ryan
193 - Randy Johnson
104 - Roger Clemens
97 - Sandy Koufax
93 - Pedro Martinez

Obviously, since Clemens is indeed one to pile up the K's (even if it is not like Ryan, Johnson or Pedro), this is another stat accomplished from playing many a game. Pedro is within a dozen of him despite playing in 317 fewer games! I mean c'mon...

Career 15+ Strikeout Games

27 - Randy Johnson
26 - Nolan Ryan
10 - Pedro Martinez, Roger Clemens
8 - Sandy Koufax

Again Roger... he's started 317 more games than Pedro has and yet Pedro has as many 15+ K games. Pedro got 60% of the number of career 15 K games Roger had over 600+ starts, in 1999 ALONE! Of course that doesn't surprise me much considering that Pedro was striking people out like it was nobody's business back then and didn't even let up at a fun filled event like the All-Star Game, throwing 98 mph out of the gate and knocking down Larkin, Walker, Sosa, McGwire and Bagwell. I'll also rank Pedro's 17 K one-hitter right up there with either of Rocket's 20 K games. Actually, Kerry Wood's performance in 1998 wipes the floor with either of them. This first started out as Randy compared to Clemens, but now you can even see cases in which the 5'11", 175 lb Pedro is a better K pitcher than Clemens.

The final conclusion: Johnson, Ryan, Pedro, Koufax and eventually Kerry Wood... all > than Clemens as far as Strikeouts are concerned, because Clemens may just be the best pitcher ever next to Walter Johnson and Lefty Grove considering eras.

While we are taking about Strikeouts... Anyone catch ESPN Classic last Friday afternoon? If you did, you were in for a treat as they were showing Pedro's 17 K's against the Yanks in front of 55,000+ in 1999. I'm glad I was able to record it. This Saturday ESPNC is having a special on Fireballers. They'll show Clemens 1986 20 K game followed by Wood's 20 K game (Truly a MUST-SEE if you haven't), Bob Gibson SportsCentury and finally Game 7 of the World Series (A classic Schilling/Rocket duel with Johnson coming out of the pen).

yawkeyway
04-29-2004, 06:24 AM
Wow. Duffycliff, that was a GREAT post. It took me a good 5 minutes to wade through, I can only imagine how long it took to type/research.

Anyway, I can see that you're bitter against Clemens, but you make a good argument. I'm much happier that Clemens left and we got Pedro. He's a much more dominant strikeout pitcher as you have proven.

As for RJ though, he may pass Carlton, but not clemens. Clemens is still active and could get 200 k's this season (possibly), and Johnson needs what, 212 ro tatch up to him at this point? So he'll need to have about 400 more strikeouts than Clemens for the rest of their careers. I dont think that'll happen. Although it would be nice to see.

roary
04-29-2004, 02:42 PM
I agree with what Duffycliff said, RJ deserves to be the strikeout "heir" to Carlton much more than that fat slob Clemens. He did it in a shorter career, and he has always been known as a fearsome striekout fireballer, much more so than Clemens. Plus he was a lefty, which is just cool.

DuffyCliff
04-29-2004, 05:23 PM
RJ has a major league contract through at least 2005. He'll play through it. If Roger actually retires this year, he'll have a shot at being # 2.

As for Clemens... I don't really hate him. He's undeniably one of the greatest pitchers of all-time but there are more ways of looking at the strikeout legends than just career strikeouts.

Out of all the members in the 3,000 K club, just two of them actually have more strikeouts than Innings pitched. They are Ryan and Johnson. Pedro will be the 3rd when he enters the club.