After an incredible 22-year career, the Big Unit has decided to hang it up.

Randy Johnson announced his retirement on Tuesday night and just like any sports fan or columnist does, we can’t just enjoy his career: We have to dissect it and compare it to others.

SI.com’s Tim Marchman broke down the battle between Johnson and Sandy Koufax while posing the question: Is the Big Unit the greatest left-hander of all-time?

During his five-year peak, Koufax ran up a 111-34 record with a 1.95 ERA, striking out 1,444 in 1,377 innings. From 1998-2002, Johnson’s record was 100-38, with a 2.63 ERA and 1,746 strikeouts in 1,274 1/3 innings. Koufax won five straight ERA titles, leading in strikeouts and wins three times and innings twice. Johnson won three ERA titles and four strikeout crowns while leading in innings twice and wins once.

Taking these numbers at face value, you’d say that as marvelous as Johnson was at his best, Koufax was that much better. But then Koufax pitched in a great pitcher’s park in a great pitcher’s era, while Johnson pitched in good hitter’s parks in a great hitter’s era. Going by ERA+, which adjusts for park and league effects and indexes them on a scale where 100 is average, Johnson actually has the better of it over their five-year primes, 175-167. Perhaps more impressively, he led his leagues in ERA+ four times during his best five year run. Koufax did that twice.

What makes Johnson so special isn’t that he had a five-year run to rate with Koufax’s prime, though; it’s what he did outside of it. Leave aside that run from 1998 through 2002 and Johnson’s career record is 203-128 with a 3.28 ERA –essentially Curt Schilling’s entire career, Hall-worthy in its own right. Add Koufax’s prime to that and you have something unfathomable, something that I’d say rates as the best career any left-hander has ever had.

This is a great debate, but I’m going to stay out of it because I never saw Koufax pitch and therefore, it would be unfair for me to proudly boast that the Big Unit was better. All I’ll say is that Johnson was one of the greatest pitchers I have ever seen in my era and I’m going to miss what he brought to the mound every fifth day.

The thing that often gets overlooked when people gush about Johnson is that he was a great student of the game. Even over the last couple years as injuries started to take their toll on his performance, nobody studied opposing hitters more than the Big Unit did before he took the hill.

Yes, he was a great intimidator with an electric fastball and outstanding strikeout ability. But the guy also loved the game of baseball and in an era of steroid abusers and cheaters, fans can appreciate what the Big Unit brought to the table.

Photo from fOTOGLIF
]]> http://www.scoresreport.com/2010/01/06/is-randy-johnson-the-greatest-left-hander-of-all-time/feed/ 8 http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/07/29/is-the-big-unit%e2%80%99s-career-finished/ http://www.scoresreport.com/2009/07/29/is-the-big-unit%e2%80%99s-career-finished/#comments Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:00:45 +0000 Anthony Stalter http://www.scoresreport.com/?p=21880

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Giants’ starter Randy Johnson has been diagnosed with a slightly torn left rotator cuff.

Johnson suffered the injury a couple of weeks ago during an at bat. He swung wildly at a Roy Oswalt pitch and was in obvious discomfort while he clutched his shoulder. He attempted to go out the next inning to pitch, but couldn’t stay in as the pain increased.

He was supposed to begin a throwing program with the Giants soon, but now he’s been ordered to rest for three weeks and might not return at all this season. At 45 years old, this could spell the end of the Big Unit’s career.

If it is the end, what an ending it was. Earlier this season, Johnson became the fourth 300-game winner this decade and amassed 4,867 strikeouts over his phenomenal career. He also has racked up 100 complete games, compiled a 3.28 ERA and would finish with an amazing record of 303-165.

Even though his chances of returning this season (and next for that matter) look bleak, I don’t want this to be it for the Big Unit. I would love to see him in the postseason just one more time and get a chance to win another World Series. He’s a true student of the game and he’s the ultimate competitor.

But if he doesn’t, Johnson has nothing left to prove to anyone.

Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News is a little delusional.

Either that, or my man has been getting high on peyote, because in one of his recent articles he actually suggested that the Giants have to trade Barry Zito.

And the Giants have to very seriously consider trying to trade Zito to any suitable team that will take some of his money (Zito has a no-trade clause); or they have to think about releasing him in the off-season.

Of course, at the end of this season, Zito will still be owed a guaranteed $83 million. Which is a lot.

Releasing him in the offseason might be a viable (expensive, but viable) option with Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson tearing up the minor leagues and possibly being ready to join the big league club next year. But what team would be stupid enough to trade for Zito and take on some of his contract as Kawakami is suggesting? Even the win-at-all-cost, spend-at-all-cost Yankees wouldn’t touch Zito, especially with Roy Halladay on the market.

Truth be told, Zito hasn’t looked as bad this year as he has the previous two seasons. When he’s supplying souvenirs to the fans sitting in the left field bleachers, he can be serviceable as a fourth or fifth starter. Of course, he’ll still be the highest paid fourth or fifth starter in baseball history, but at least the Giants will be getting something back on their brutal investment.

Either way, nothing is going to happen this year. No team is going to trade for him and with Randy Johnson on the DL the Giants aren’t going to release Zito during the season, no matter how bad he pitches the rest of the way. They could potentially move him to the bullpen (which they tried to do for about a millisecond last year), but don’t forget that he’s typically a good second half pitcher and with the Giants in contention, they’d be better off rolling the dice and leaving him in the rotation.

Better yet while the Big Unit is on the DL, the Giants could pit Zito against Jonathan Sanchez and Ryan Sadowski for the last two spots in the rotation. Loser either goes to the bullpen (Zito/Sanchez) or Triple-A (Sadowski).

If you were to have gotten Giants general manager Brian Sabean all liquored up in a private setting (I know you’re probably weirded out by the start of this sentence, but stay with me here) and asked him which players he wouldn’t mind giving up in a trade to acquire a bat, he almost certainly would have uttered this name: Jonathan Sanchez.

Hell, there’s a great chance he would have uttered that name first. But that was before Sanchez’s no-hitter against the Padres on Friday night, when he struck out 11 batters and was a Juan Uribe-error away from throwing a perfect game.

The Giants had been waiting for that kind of performance all season out of Sanchez. Granted, they weren’t expecting that good of a performance, but they did have high expectations for him coming into the 2009 season.

He did show flashes of brilliance earlier this season, most notably in a two-hit, 2-0 win over the Diamondbacks on April 17. But ’09 has mostly been a season of massive frustration for not only Sanchez, but also a Giants organization that had hoped the 26-year-old lefty would be the third leg of a tripod that also featured pitching sensations Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain.

Sanchez has always been a strikeout pitcher, but for much of this season he struggled mightily with his control and he seemed to be racking up K’s only because he was wildly effective. And when he would start to struggle during games, he appeared to be a mental midget on the mound and could never recover.

At the end of June, Sanchez was demoted to the bullpen and the only reason he got the opportunity to start on Friday night against San Diego was because Randy Johnson suffered a shoulder injury swinging a bat in his last outing. But as Sanchez noted after his no-hitter, the move to the pen allowed pitching coach Dave Righetti to work with him on his lower half, getting the lefty to slow down and cock his leg back more upon his delivery. This also slowed his arm action down and it allotted Sanchez more control of all his pitches.

And he was certainly in control last night, striking out 11 batters with a barrage of fastballs, sliders and breaking balls that befuddled a weak San Diego lineup. His performance wasn’t a fluke; Sanchez was just that good last night and maybe the young man is finally turning the corner.

That said, the Giants need to hang onto Sanchez now. Even for as bad as he’s looked this year, maybe Friday’s performance will serve as a steppingstone for Sanchez to become the pitcher San Fran had always envisioned him becoming. With Johnson expected to miss at least another week or so, Sanchez will get another start or two and if he’s lights out again, Sabean can’t trade this kid with the Giants leading the Wild Card race.

San Fran’s offense is bad, but it might not be as bad as everyone initially thought. “Kung Fu Panda” Pablo Sandoval has ignited this team with his bat, Aaron Rowand has been revived in the leadoff spot and even young players like Nate Schierholtz and Travis Ishikawa are starting to come around. If role players like Uribe, Randy Winn and Edgar Renteria can help fill in the gaps, the Giants might not have to part with an arm like Sanchez in order to get a bat on the trade market.

Plus, with Lincecum and Cain, the Giants already had one of the best pitching rotations in the NL – if not the best. If Sanchez has finally turned the corner, the Giants could potentially have the best starting rotation in the entire league (don’t forget about Johnson and Barry Zito, the latter of which has pitched well this season). San Fran would be incredibly tough to beat in the postseason with that rotation, even with a weak lineup.

Now, I know what some are thinking: Sanchez has had more bad outings this season than good and one no-hitter doesn’t mean he’s Cy Young-bound now. But Sanchez isn’t some journeyman that came out of nowhere; the Giants loved his potential coming into the season. And if he has finally turned the corner, SF should reap the benefits of developing his talent.

Plus, with minor leaguers Buster Posey and Angel Villalona on there way to the big leagues soon, maybe the offense is on its way and the Giants don’t have to go outside of the organization in order to acquire bats.

Maybe Sabean is thinking he can turn Sanchez’s no-hitter into trade gold. Maybe Sabean can now get the bat the Giants have needed all season long. Or maybe Sabean keeps Sanchez and builds a starting rotation that resembles the Braves of the mid-90s or the A’s of earlier this decade. After all Lincecum, Cain and Sanchez look like one hell of a trio right now and the sick part is, the Giants still have two more studs in the waiting in minor league arms Madison Bumgarner and Tim Alderson.

Sabean might be sitting on a pitching gold mind here. Now isn’t the time to trade one of those pieces.

A San Francisco Giants’ starter has thrown a no-hitter.

It must have been Tim Lincecum right?

Nope.

Matt Cain?

Nope.

Randy Johnson?!

Nope.

It wasn’t Barry Zito was it?

Absolutely not.

One night after Lincecum flirted with a similar feat, 26-year-old Jonathan Sanchez, coming off a recent demotion to the bullpen, threw a no-hitter against the Padres on Friday night as the Giants beat San Diego 8-0 at AT&T Park in San Francisco. It was the first no-hitter of the 2009 Major League season and the first Giants’ no-hitter since John Montefusco threw one in 1976.

In his nine innings of domination, Sanchez struck out 11 batters in obviously his most dominant performance of his career. He did allow a base runner, but it was due to a Juan Uribe fielding error in the eighth inning. Had Uribe not booted the play (he misplayed a bad in-between hop), Sanchez could have had a perfect game.

Speaking of fielding, Sanchez got an amazing gift from centerfielder Aaron Rowand in the ninth as he went back on a ball that was crushed by Edgar Gonzalez, leaped against the wall and made a terrific catch. Shortstop Edgar Renteria also made a fine play in the hole the play earlier.

What’s amazing is that Sanchez wasn’t even supposed to pitch tonight (relatively speaking, that is). He was taken out of the starting rotation at the end of June and replaced by Ryan Sadowski after he started the season 2-8 with a 5.54 ERA. But an injury to Johnson gave Sanchez a start tonight and he obviously took full advantage of it.

This was supposed to be Sanchez’s breakout season, but instead he struggled considerably with his control and would often get flustered after bad innings. His strikeout numbers have been consistently good, but he has been more wildly effective than anything. His name has even come up in numerous trade rumors, although considering Johnson’s injury and the fact that the Giants are in the thick of the NL Wild Card chase, they might hang onto Sanchez for the second half.

No matter what Sanchez’s future holds, this was an amazing accomplishment. The Padres don’t exactly have the most potent offense, but Sanchez isn’t exactly Cy Young either. He was absolutely phenomenal and for a young man who has had so many struggles this season, he deserved this tonight and maybe he’ll use this performance as a stepping-stone to turn things around and have a great career.

On a personal note, I was fortunate enough to watch every pitch of this game and it was absolutely thrilling as a baseball fan. They said on the broadcast that Sanchez’s dad, who had never seen his son pitch in the majors before tonight, flew to San Francisco yesterday to watch the game and was able to celebrate with Jonathan in the dugout afterward. It was a great scene.

Congratulations to Jonathan Sanchez.

It was a moment that had been hyped up since the start of the season, but due to Mother Nature (that whore), Randy Johnson won his 300th career game in front of a rain soaked crowd of about 10 people.

Nevertheless, he’s now a part of the illustrious 300-win club.

Johnson pitched six innings on Thursday, allowing just two hits and one unearned run in the Giants’ 5-1 victory over the Nationals. He got a fair amount of help from his bullpen, who pitched three scoreless innings in a steady rain to preserve the Giants’ lead, which had been 2-1 until the ninth inning when San Fran scratched across three more insurance runs.

With the win, the Big Unit became only the 24th pitcher to get to 300 victories and is the second-oldest pitcher to achieve the milestone. He’s also the first pitcher to get his 299th and 300th win in consecutive starts since Tom Seaver did it in 1985.

One moment that’ll surely be overlooked from this game is an amazing defensive play by Giants second baseman Emmanuel Burriss in the fifth inning. With the Giants up 2-0, Johnson gave up a hit to Elijah Dukes, who advanced to second on a passed ball the very next batter.

Johnson then walked Austin Kearns, which brought the leading run to the plate in Ronnie Belliard. Belliard then scorched a pitch that ricocheted sharply off the mound and looked to be heading into center field for a base hit. But Burriss made a diving stop and flipped the ball with only his glove to shortstop Edgar Renteria, who got the force out at second and then completed the double play by throwing out Belliard at first. Johnson then got Will Nieves to ground out to Burriss to end the inning and preserve the Giants’ 2-0 lead.

Even though nothing can take the moment away from the Big Unit, it’s a shame that not more people were in attendance to enjoy the victory. That said, his family was front and center and that’s all that matters. It’s a fantastic milestone for Johnson, a player that never cheated the game. (At least as far as we know, that is.)

Randy Johnson will go for career win No. 300 when the Giants take on the Nationals tonight at 7:05 p.m. ET. Johnson hasn’t won back-to-back starts all season and he’s coming off a win over the Braves on May 27.

Some believe the Big Unit is a shoe-in to win No. 300 tonight because he’s taking on a Washington team that’s just 14-36 on the year and lost six straight before beating San Fran 10-6 last night. But the Nats have scored the 12th most runs in baseball and are ninth in home runs, which Johnson has served plenty of this season (10 in 10 starts to be exact).

Johnson’s performance so far this season matches his stats line, which is to say he has been very average. He’s currently 4-4 with a 5.71 ERA and while he’s pitched well his last two outings, he also hasn’t reached the seventh inning in eight of his 10 starts. He simply runs out of gas when the game reaches the fifth and sixth inning, which means the Giants bullpen has often been the deciding factor in whether or not the Big Unit is victorious.

I don’t want to piss on his parade, but I don’t see Johnson winning tonight. Jordan Zimmerman is throwing for the Nats and the Giants don’t have a good enough offense to jump out to a big lead early and allow the Big Unit to cruise. As much as I would love to watch history tonight, I’ve got a gut feeling Johnson will be stuck at 299 by the end of the night.

Still, the Giants are always in tight ball games, so it would be cool to see Johnson throw six strong innings and then watch as the bullpen tries to preserve the victory for him. As much as SF closer Brian Wilson gets jacked for games, it would also be sweet to see him have to come in for a save in ninth with Johnson’s No. 300 hanging in the balance.