Crowning the Premier Power Pitcher of our Era

With Roger Clemens’ reputation in the toilet, many of his gaudy records deserve to be disregarded. Once considered the generation’s greatest pitchers, Clemens has watched as his contemporaries have passed him in the record books. His legendary mark of 354 wins is no longer so extraordinary now that Greg Maddux has gotten to 350. That coveted number now seems unattainable for any other pitcher in the future, with decreasing pitch counts and the implementation of middle relief. By getting to the number without the aid of performance enhancers, many have elevated Maddux ahead of Clemens in their list of the all-time greats. Now, Clemens’ hallowed mark of 4,672 strikeouts isn’t so impressive, either.

That’s because Randy Johnson joined him with that many punch outs on Thursday night. Johnson looked strong in going seven innings, while striking out nine and allowing only two earned runs in tying Clemens for second all-time on the career strikeouts list. Johnson’s 4,672nd victim was Dan Ortemeier of the San Francisco Giants in the seventh inning. Even though the all-time mark is way out reach, with Nolan Ryan compiling over 1,000 more than Johnson and Clemens, it’s safe to say that Johnson has earned his way into his own stratosphere with Maddux and past Clemens in the generation’s all-time greats. It will only be a matter of time – only five days when the Big Unit next takes the mound – before he will be on his own and past Clemens on the all-time list.

For many, watching Maddux methodically outthink hitters with his precision control isn’t as exciting as watching a power pitcher use gas to continually dominant hitters. Given a choice to watch Maddux or Johnson and Clemens, most fans would choose to pick the latter two just because of the spectacle to behold. The strikeout is the best play in baseball for a pitcher. Nothing gets a guy on the mound going like throwing their fastball by the opposing team’s power hitter and watching him swing and miss time after time. It doesn’t matter that Johnson has 70 less victories than Clemens. By surpassing him on the career strikeout list minus the steroids or HGH, he has become the steroid era’s premier power pitcher.

The Big Unit was a late bloomer, unable to make his major league debut until he was 25 because of chronic control problems. Beginning a career that late made it seem highly unlikely that Johnson could have a long and successful career where he would approach 300 victories or compile over 4,000 strikeouts. But, his longevity has been something to behold and at 44, he continues to get hitters out with his wicked slider and blazing fastball. The career stats are absolutely staggering. No pitcher in the history of baseball can match the 10.78 K/9 IP that Johnson has put together over his 19-year career. In addition, Johnson has had six seasons where he has struck out 300 or more hitters – something Clemens never did – including a four year stretch from 1999-2002 where he took home the Cy Young Award four consecutive times.

That four year period will likely go down as the best of Johnson’s career. Even though he was pushing 40, a time when many pitchers deal with diminished velocity and/or control, the Big Unit was simply sensational. During that time, Johnson was 81-27 and never had an ERA over 2.64. His lowest strikeout total during that span was 334, a mark that no other pitcher has managed to achieve since Nolan Ryan struck out 341 batters in 1977.

Now at the twilight of his career, Johnson continues to prove that he’s got the game to anchor a winning baseball team. Since making his debut two weeks into the season, Johnson is 4-1 with a 3.83 ERA, acting as the veteran leader for the surging first place Diamondbacks. In 51.2 innings, his 53 strikeouts have come at the cost of only 14 walks, nearly a 4:1 ratio. His solid pitching has proved that he’s got enough gas in the tank to get those 11 wins and become likely the last pitcher to ever get 300 wins.