Showing posts with label Randy Johnson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Randy Johnson. Show all posts

Saturday, January 10, 2015

The Hall Of Fame has four new members



The 2015 Hall Of Fame Class is one of the best as they elected four new members, three of them were first ballot.  John Smoltz, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Craig Biggio are the newest members of the baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York.  Last year Smoltz saw his teammates Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux go in on their first ballot and his manager Bobby Cox and now he joins them.  There really wasn't much issue with these guys.  The only controversy is why is Mike Piazza still not in.  He got a little bit closer getting close to 70 percent and he should be elected in next year but for now he waits. 

Randy Johnson is arguably  the best left handed pitcher to ever play the game.  He was big and intimidating and once he got under control he was just dominant.  He had two seasons with the Yankees which are here in my backyard and he won 17 games in both seasons but was never exactly what they thought.  If you can win 17 games two years in a row though and still be called a disappointment it pretty much shows just how good he really was.  He started with the Montreal Expos and then went to the Seattle Mariners and was very wild but once he harnassed that he was just lights out.  He had a career record of 303-166 with a 3.29 ERA and 4,875 strikeouts.  He was with the Expos his first two season in 1988 and 1989 and then with the Mariners for 9 full years and then in his 10th season with the Mariners was traded to the Houston Astros.  He spent six seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks and helped them to one world series championship.  He spent two seasons with the New  York Yankees and then back to the Diamondbacks for a couple of seasons before finishing his career with the San Francisco Giants in 2009.  He was a 10X all star and five time Cy Young award winner.  He pitched a no-hitter and a perfect game. 

John Smoltz spend played for 21 seasons and spent all but one of them with the Atlanta Braves.  He spent his final season with the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.  He had a career record of 213-155 with a 3.33 ERA.  He struck out 3,084 and also had 154 career saves.  He was an 8X all star and won a world series in 1995.  He won one cy young award. 

Pedro Martinez played 18 seasons for five different teams.  He was an eight time all star, three time cy young award winner  and won a world series in 2004.  He has the lowest WHIP of any live ball era starting pitcher and his adjusted ERA+ is the best of any starting pitcher in MLB history.  He has the second highest winning percentage in modern baseball history.  He had a career record of 219-100 with a 2.93 ERA.  He had 3,154 career strikeouts and played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. 

Craig Biggio was the only position player to join these three pitchers in the Hall Of Fame class of 2015.  He played 20 seasons all of them for the Houston Astros.  Biggio finished with a career batting average of 281 and he had 3,060 career hits.  He had 291 career homeruns with 1,175 career RBI, he also had 414 career stolen bases.  He was a seven time all star and four time gold glove award winner.  He won five silver slugger awards. 

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Busy Baseball Day

Yesterday was a very busy baseball day which is always fun. I wrote a post about Randy Johnson retiring and Jason Bay coming to the Mets which would of been busy enough but there was more. The Boston Red Sox were very busy signing Adrian Beltre to be their new third baseman. They will now look to trade Mike Lowell again, I wonder who would take him coming off of thumb surgery? I am guessing he will have to play in spring training and play well and then maybe they will revisit the trade with the Texas Rangers. The Red Sox also announced they are moving Jacoby Ellsbury to leftfield and Mike Cameron will be the centerfielder. I think this was a good move by them but Ellsbury will have to learn the very tricky left field, they should be better defensively though with these moves but my question is how good will they be compared to how many runs they will score. I don't think the Red Sox will have a very good offense right now, I think they are losing a lot at third base and the outfield won't be great hitting. Their offense will come from Pedroia, Youkilis and Victor Martinez primarily but is that enough?? The St. Louis Cardinals as expected resigned Matt Holliday to a 7 year 120 million dollar contract. I think this was a good move by them but didn't they outbid themselves?? I think they could of had him for much cheaper but they did what they had to do to keep him. Him and Albert Pujols make some tandem in that lineup and maybe they can persuade King Albert to stay when he is a free agent because of this. This move also impacts Johnny Damon as that is one more team that will not be looking at him for leftfield. I really wonder if he has a team, I have heard Atlanta rumored but I don't think that will happen, could he just come back to the Yankees on a cheap 1 yr deal and would he even be willing to do that at this point?? Does he really have any other options?? I guess we will see in the next couple of weeks.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The Big Unit finally withdraws

Randy Johnson aka- The Big Unit announced his retirement this evening. He finished his career with 303 wins which is 22nd all time. Here are some more of his career accomplishments: His first game was with the Expos in Sept 1988 against the Pirates. 1st strikeout victim was Orestes Destrade He played 22 years for 6 teams 1999-2002 won 4 straight Cy Youngs-won 5 overall 2001 was a World Champion with Arizona and co MVP of the World Series along with Curt Shilling He won 17 games in back to back seasons with the Yankees in 2005-06. His 10.67 strikeouts per 9 innings were 1st all-time for starting pitchers 188 hitbatsmen is 3rd all-time 4.875 strikeouts are second all-time and 1st among left handed pitchers 7.24 hits allowed per 9 innings pitched is 10th all-time 37 shutouts is 57th all-time 20 strikeouts in a game on May 8, 2001 He pitched a perfect game on May 18, 2004 He is the 5th pitcher in MLB history to pitch a no-hitter in both leagues joining Cy Young, Jim Bunning, Nolan Ryan and Hideo Nomo. These stats were courtesy of Wikipedia. I will have more on Randy Johnson tomorrow, some comments he made at the press conference and other thoughts on his career.
 

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