To appreciate how far Randy Johnson has come, consider this: over the last two seasons, Johnson, the game's most intimidating pitcher, the 6-foot-10, unpredictable, wild-haired, scream-at-the-sky left-hander with the 95-mph fastball and gouging slider has walked fewer batters than Tom Glavine, the classic crafty left-hander, clean-cut, measured and always under control.
Fewer walks than Tom Glavine the last two years ... and more strikeouts in that time than Glavine and Greg Maddux combined. Once, that would have been amazing.
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In complete control
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Randy Johnson's strikeout and walk totals and the differential between the two dating back to 1989, his first full year in the majors:
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Year
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SO
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BB
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Differential
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1989
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130
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96
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+34
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1990
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194
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120
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+74
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1991
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228
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152
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+76
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1992
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241
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144
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+97
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1993
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308
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99
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+209
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1994
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204
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72
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+132
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1995
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294
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65
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+229
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1996
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85
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25
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+60
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1997
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291
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77
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+214
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1998
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329
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86
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+243
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1999
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364
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70
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+294
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2000
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347
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76
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+271
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In 1992, Johnson joined Nolan Ryan, Tommy Byrne and Togie Pittinger as the only pitchers to lead the major leagues in walks three years in a row. In 1991, he walked more batters (152) than the last two years (146) combined. This maturation is similar to that of the great Sandy Koufax, whose walk total dropped from 96 to 57 from 1961 to 1962, beginning five years of brilliance. In 1965, Koufax set a record for largest disparity between strikeouts and walks in one season: 311.
In 1999, Johnson posted the second-greatest K-to-walk gap: 294. Last year, his differential was 271. His improved control and command is the biggest reason why Johnson has won the National League Cy Young Award the last two years; only Maddux has ever won more than two in a row. It was Maddux who seemed most amazed by Johnson's performance in the 1995 All-Star Game in Texas.
"He wasn't throwing, he was painting," said Maddux, perhaps the greatest painter since Christy Mathewson. "He hit his spots."
Johnson is not Koufax, but he is the closest thing to him. His lifetime numbers are eerily similar although Johnson's ERA is nearly a half a run higher (2.76 to 3.19). But keep in mind, Koufax played the majority of his career in the 1960's -- one of the great pitching eras in history -- and played most of his career in one of the best pitcher's park in baseball history (Dodger Stadium) for largely excellent Dodger teams. Johnson played the majority of his career in the hitter-happy Kingdome for, on average, .500 Mariner teams. And he has pitched the last seven seasons during one of the greatest offensive eras in the history of baseball.
Only one starting pitcher in the last 50 years has been elected to the Hall of Fame with fewer than 200 wins: Sandy Koufax. If Johnson retired today, he probably would become the second. But at 37, retirement isn't in Johnson's near future.
Last year, Johnson struck out 347 hitters. Ryan is the only pitcher to strike out 300 at an older age (301 at age 42) than Johnson; no one else has come close to either. And now Johnson guns for another record held by Ryan: the only pitcher in history to strike out 300+ hitters three years in a row. If he can duplicate his 347-strikeout season, he would fly past Bob Gibson and others, and move into ninth place on the all-time strikeout list behind the greatest pitcher ever, Walter Johnson.
|  | | Randy Johnson has won the NL Cy Young Award each of the last two seasons while with the Diamondbacks. |
And with 21 more wins, Johnson will join the 200-win club. Johnson's .653 winning percentage (the winning percentage of the teams for whom he pitched is .511) is second only to Pedro Martinez among active pitchers (who have at least 100 wins), is the 16th best of all-time and it's the third highest of anyone who has pitched in the majors during the last 25 years (behind Pedro and Don Gullett).
Johnson, even more than Martinez, is the pitcher that most hitters least like to see. Ask Tony Gwynn, who's 1-for-11 with four strikeouts lifetime against him.
"He's the toughest guy I face today," says Gwynn. "He (throws) 98 with Mr. Snappy. What makes him so tough is that there's no one else like him. He's 6-10. No one else comes at you from that angle." Ask Mariners center fielder Mike Cameron, who is 0-for-13 with nine strikeouts against Johnson. "Man, he's scary," Cameron says. "I've faced him where he's throwing 99-100 the whole game. You just hope he doesn't hit you. I once saw him throw a slider that went between Barry Larkin's legs."
Edgar Martinez, a former teammate of Johnson's with the Mariners, faced the big left-hander for the first time in 1999.
"He threw a slider that I didn't see," Martinez said.
Johnson always has had that slider that tears into right-handed hitters, but he has perfected it in recent seasons. Gwynn says it's easier for a left-handed hitter to hit that slider because instead of it disappearing under a right-handed hitter's hands as he invariably swings over it, a left-handed hitter can see it better.
Alex Rodriguez, one of Johnson's former teammates, meanwhile says, "Tony is different. I've never seen a left-handed hitter have a good swing against that slider."
Few hitters besides Chipper Jones (six career homers off Johnson) have had as many good swings off the Big Unit during the last eight years. Johnson has gone from a wild, gangly, uncontrollable force into a painter with stuff that remains so explosive, it's frightening. Simply, he can move the piano, and he can play it, too. The man who went his first 129 starts without a complete game, without a walk, has had eight complete games without a walk over the last two years.
His knowledge of the strike zone, and his ability to work within it when he has to, has elevated Johnson to Hall of Fame status. It also helped him as a hitter last year when he drew the first walk of his major-league career. It came in his 226th career plate appearance, and after nearly 100 career strikeouts. He walked three times last season.
In eight or nine years, when he has stopped terrorizing hitters, he will undoubtedly walk into Cooperstown in his first year of eligibility.
ESPN The Magazine's Tim Kurkjian is a frequent contributor to ESPN.com.
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