So, where does Randy Johnson fall in the rankings of all-time greatest pitchers ever? Despite the contempt we hold for a lot of tWWL’s employees, we enjoy the analysis and stat throwing of Tim Kurkjian. We also think he and NickP over at MLJ are related. He has Randy as the 11th best pitcher in the history of the game.
This could be (and we think, will be) the last 300 game winner ever in baseball. After the jump, we’ll run down the stats and see what kind of semblance we can make of The Unit’s place in the history books.
Randy Johnson’s list of accomplishments looks something like this:
- Threw a perfect game
- Won a World Series
- 5 Cy Young Awards; including 4 in a row
- He’s the only 300 game winner to beat every major league franchise
- Only the sixth lefty ever to win 300
- Greatest mullet in the history of sports
There’s not many guys in the sport that can boast a resume like that. Especially among left handers. The only left hander that we would consider to put in front of Johnson is Lefty Grove. Now, while it is extremely difficult to compare the 1930s to the time that Johnson pitched in, we do have a stat that can show Grove’s dominance.
He led the league in ERA. Nine years in a row. Nine! He also won two World Series and was the league MVP in 1931. This was prior to the Cy Young Award. Oh, and his middle name was Moses. You can’t argue with that.
Warren Spahn is also up there for left handed pitching. He won the most among lefties with 363 wins. He also threw 382 complete games, 63 of them shutouts. Spahn, along with Grove just weren’t the kind of imtimidators and dominators that Johnson has been throughout his career.
There’s also another man who simply went by “Lefty”, Steve Carlton. Carlton was a strikeout pitcher, not quite as dominant as Johnson. He’s the only other lefty that is close to Randy with four. When Carlton retired, he was the career strikeout leader in Major League Baseball.
The Big Unit is an imposing figure on the mound. He’s 6’10” and in his prime brought it in at 99-100 MPH. The man literally held the life of every batter he faced in the palm of his hand. His career K/9 is 10.62. For every nine innings he pitches, he averages almost 11 Ks. So, if push comes to shove, we’ll rank lefties as the following:
- Randy Johnson
- Lefty Grove
- Steve Carlton
- Warren Spahn
In terms of all-time pitching, we see Randy as the 10th best of all time. Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Phil Niekro, Nolan Ryan, Don Sutton, Tom Seaver and then Randy Johnson. We love lists and we love debates. Let us know what you think.
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