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Sunday, June 04, 2023

Randy Johnson's 300th Win Day - 2023


Another year has come and gone, and we find ourselves arriving at June 4 of the year 2023. It is the 14th anniversary of Randy Johnson's 300th career win; the holiday I've been celebrating ever year on this date. Well, I personally spent the day hanging out at a My Little Pony convention in Chicago. It was great fun, but now I'm writing this in the O'Hare airport watching as my red eye flight out of Chicago get delayed already over ten hours out. Hooray! 

Meanwhile I still have the losing pitchers of Randy Johnson memorized, as I keep refreshing my memory by reciting the wins every time I harvest fruits in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. (I have 620 fruits to harvest, which is enough to go through each of Randy's wins twice through. I recite the final score the first time around then the date the second time around, while naming the losing pitcher every time.) My journey to get the autographs of the losing pitchers on their cards have definitely slowed, as private signings rarely include these losing pitchers and my autograph by mail attempts have hit dead ends. I did manage to get the autograph of Ricky Bones (win number 117 on July 18, 1997) in person at a Nationals vs. Mets game. I have also passed the halfway mark as I now have 164 signatures, although the last half is going to be so much harder. 

Meanwhile life has been going pretty well for the man of the hour Randy Johnson. He's still dedicating much of his time towards his current passion of photography. He currently has a photography exhibit on display at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, where he also got to collaborate with the Baseball Hall of Fame to photograph some legendary baseball artifacts. He also recently took a trip to Japan, where he had been taking photographs. It certainly wasn't his first trip to Japan. He had been there for the MLB-Japan All Star Game in 1990 where he pitched a no-hitter with Chuck Finley, then he returned a few more times for other exhibitions. He still manages to stay busy despite closing in on his 60th birthday.

Meanwhile, it's time for another tradition as I take a look at the status of the winningest active pitchers (where active merely means they are signed with a Major League organization). Now that we are officially 14 years removed from the last 300-game winner, we are in the midst of the fourth longest 300-win drought, behind only the 16y-5m-10d drought between Grover Cleveland Alexander and Lefty Grove, the 18y-9m-23d drought between Early Wynn and Gaylord Perry, and the 20y-17d drought between Lefty Grove and Warren Spahn. Nobody knows how much longer this drought would become, but here are the top ten for this year as well as the top ten as of June 4 on the previous 14 years.



On the one hand, the pitcher in tenth place has 121 wins, which is certainly an improvement over the 115 that the tenth place pitcher had a year ago. On the other hand, that pitcher is now Charlie Morton, as Madison Bumgarner had gotten released in April without hooking up with another Major League organization, while David Price is currently taking a year off, even though he hasn't yet mentioned the dreaded R word (Retirement). Cole Hamels does make an appearance again for the first time since June 4, 2020, even if he hasn't yet made an appearance after signing a minor league deal with the San Diego Padres. In addition, the total number of active pitchers with 100 wins is down to 15, one fewer than the number a year ago.

Among the other members of the top ten, Lance Lynn is still racking up wins, even if his ERA this year is an unsightly 6.55. Adam Wainwright's ERA is almost as bad (6.15) as he is continuing his ascent towards 200 wins. As bad as those ERAs are, they still don't compare to that of Johnny Cueto, who allowed four earned runs in one inning of work (for a 36.00 ERA) before suffering a biceps injury complicated by an ankle injury and now finds himself on the 60-day IL.

Of course there are still top ten pitchers that are not having disastrous seasons. Zack Greinke is roughly league average with a 4.19 ERA, although he still only has one win so far this year as he is toiling for the hapless Royals. Of course he is much closer to the 3,000-strikeout mark than he is towards 300 wins.  Max Scherzer had overcome a shocking suspension as well as his distaste of the new rules to solidify himself as the ace of the disappointing Mets. Clayton Kershaw has crossed the 200-win barrier, and while a few rough starts had elevated his ERA above 3.00; Meanwhile the top ten pitcher having the best season is probably Gerrit Cole. He is 7-0 with an ERA of 2.82. It's certainly a promising season, but it is only enough to get him to 137 wins, not even halfway to 300.

Meanwhile, how is our last great hope for the 300-win milestone Justin Verlander doing? Well, he had a tremendous finish to the 2022 season, going 12-2 with a 1.47 ERA to lock up his third Cy Young award, then later picking up his first World Series pitching win while helping the Astros to the title. It's all very inspiring, but then he inked a two-year deal with the New York Mets and celebrated his 40th birthday, and things haven't been quite the same after that. He strained the teres major muscle in his shoulder during spring training, which kept him out of commission until May. He's made six starts since then, and he hasn't quite been the ace that everybody expected of him. He's had two disastrous starts where he allowed six runs, and while he's allowed two runs or fewer in his other four starts, he's picked up a win in only two of those starts. That puts him at 246 wins. and while that still puts him ahead of Randy's pace, it's not nearly at a guarantee that he'd be given a chance to pick up those final 54 wins. We'll see how the rest of his season goes.

Of course, this shows just how difficult it is to win 300 games. Even if Justin Verlander does end up rediscovering his fearsome fastball and claims those final 54 wins, we should not discount the legendary nature of Randy Johnson's career, one that culminated in his 300th win.

Happy Randy Johnson's 300th Win Day!

Hooray I got this post done before June 5.

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