On the days they pitch, no one has to talk about juiced balls. On the
days they pitch, there's no danger of the scoreboard blowing a circuit. On
the days they pitch, we're reminded of the way baseball used to be, back
before David Bell became a 20-homer guy.
In other words, on the days Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez do their
thing, we're reminded that even now, in the era of the 17-16 game, somebody
can still pitch.
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At least, baseball
knows there are still a couple of guys who know what they're doing out there.
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Ferguson Jenkins, on Johnson and Martinez
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"At least," says Hall of Fame right-hander Ferguson Jenkins, "baseball
knows there are still a couple of guys who know what they're doing out there."
What the Big Unit and Pedro are doing would be great in any
day, in any age. But judged in the context of the times, it is the equivalent
of holding Michael Jordan to a couple of free throws, or stopping Brett Favre
without a completion.
No one shuts down these out-of-control offensive machines anymore. But
the Unit and Pedro do.
After allowing one run in eight innings on Wednesday against Kevin Brown and the Dodgers,
Johnson's ERA was a ridiculous 0.95. That's almost four runs a game below the
ERA of the average National League pitcher (4.82).
Meanwhile, the average American League pitcher had a 5.13 ERA. And
Martinez was nearly four runs below that -- at 1.22.
Never, ever -- any season, any league -- has a pitcher even had an ERA more
than three runs below his league's ERA. So think about these men and what
they have done. Not just this year, but over a period of dominance so
prolonged, it begins to rank with the the greatest pitching performances of
any era.
"Look at the way they dominate," says Steve Carlton, arguably the most
overpowering left-handed starter in the 20 years before the dawning of the Big
Unit. "To dominate for one or two or three years, or whatever span they've
been dominant, that's not a fluke. They just go out there and come right
after you. And that's the sign of a great pitcher."
We wanted to find yet one more way to measure just how great. So we asked
these two Hall of Famers from another generation -- Carlton and Jenkins -- to
tell us their impressions of the two dominators of this generation.
The Unit
His numbers look like a misprint: 7-0, 0.95. He has turned the National
League into an entire league of Brian Doyles. The league-wide batting average
against him is .170. The league-wide on-base percentage against him is barely over .200.
Since Randy Johnson arrived in the National League in August 1998, he has
made 52 starts -- and allowed two earned runs or fewer in 42 of them. So he
almost reminds Carlton of himself -- except for one thing.
"He's got a lot more talent than me," Carlton says.
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It's pure physics. He's tall. He's wiry. He's
strong. He throws 98 to 101 (mph). He comes from the side. And he has a nasty
slider. He's got a lot more good years ahead of him.
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Steve Carlton on Randy Johnson
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Yes, he really said that. Carlton's 1972 season (27-10, 1.97 for a team
that won 32 other games all year) stands as the most omnipotent season by a
National League left-hander since the days of Sandy Koufax. But Johnson could
be headed for the same neighborhood. And by the way, in his last 37
decisions, he's 28-9, 2.20.
"I really do believe he's got much more talent than I had, and he's had
it for a long time," Carlton says. "I didn't throw hard until I was in my
late 20s. Look at the first five, six years of my career. You'd struggle to
find many games where I had 10 strikeouts. I didn't dominate until I came up
with the slider ... in '68, because I didn't intimidate left-handed hitters
before that.
"But what's Randy -- 6-10? It's pure physics. He's tall. He's wiry. He's
strong. He throws 98 to 101 (mph). He comes from the side. And he has a nasty
slider. He's got a lot more good years ahead of him."
Last summer, Carlton joined an ever-growing list of pitching legends who
have had their brains picked by Johnson. Their paths happened to cross last
August, when both found themselves in Philadelphia. And the Unit didn't let
the opportunity pass.
"We talked for about half an hour, over in the Phillies' weight room,"
says Carlton, now happily retired in Colorado. "I was in there, and somebody
said he wanted to talk to me. At the time, he'd lost four games in a row,
when they weren't scoring any runs for him, and he seemed sort of down on
himself. I just said, 'You can't be like that. You go out and pitch and live
with the circumstances. If the team doesn't support you, you can't doubt your
ability. Look at the way you dominate a game.'
"He really seemed down. It was strange. I said, 'Man, if I could throw
100, how could I be down? If you throw 100, you should be happy every time
you go out to the mound.' "
Johnson also has grilled other legendary left-handers who preceded him
-- Warren Spahn and Koufax. And increasingly, it's hard not to notice how
comparable Johnson's career numbers are to those of Koufax:
Johnson is 167-88 lifetime. Koufax was 165-87.
In Koufax's six most dominant seasons, he went 129-47. Since 1993, the Unit is 118-40.
So if Johnson isn't a sure Hall of Famer yet, he is at least leading up to a heck of a closing
argument.
"He's working those stats," Jenkins says. "He's got three 300-strikeout
seasons. He's got a Cy Young. And when you talk about Hall of Fame
credentials, you start with the Cy Young -- and you have to be a standout in
your league for quite a few years. Well, that's where Randy's building
toward."
Pedro
Speaking of ridiculous numbers, here come Pedro's.
He is 5-1, 1.22 this year; 13-1, 0.84 since last August (counting the postseason), a
Lefty Grove-esque 30-5 since opening day '99.
His only loss this season was (what else?) a 1-0 game. The Red Sox have
scored a total of five runs in his five losses over the last two years. And
he hasn't lost a single game in which the Sox scored more than three runs for
him since May 25, 1998. That's 60 starts ago.
These aren't normal numbers. But Pedro Martinez isn't normal. If the Big
Unit is pure physics, Pedro defies pure physics.
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Pedro's not a big guy, but you can see some coach told him once, 'You'd
better let the hitters know you're out there.' You don't see that approach
much now, but that's the only way you can pitch.
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Jenkins on Martinez
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"Even though they're so different, these two guys are out of the same
mold," says Jenkins, whose 263-strikeout, 37-walk season in 1971 was
eminently Pedro-like. "One's right-handed. One's left-handed. One is 6-10. The
other is maybe 5-11. They're different individuals, but they have the same
qualities.
"Pedro has that excellent changeup. He can throw it any time. And he can
throw it at any time in the count. But Randy is similar in a lot of ways.
He'll throw that sidearm slider or the changeup or his good fastball in any
count. He doesn't give in to the hitter. Neither of them do."
Carlton says he hadn't seen Martinez pitch in person until the All-Star
Game at Fenway last summer. And after watching him whiff five in two innings,
Carlton almost felt sorry for the hitters. Which would come as a shock to the
hitters who faced him.
"His fastball looks like a Seaver kind of fastball," Carlton says of
Pedro. "He gets under it, and it just takes off. Then he comes in with that
circle change that goes straight down. And he has a dominant breaking ball.
It's not really a slider. It's more like a slurve because his arm position is
so flat. But it's so sharp. Add that to the fastball, at 95-96 (mph) and that
change, and it doesn't get any tougher than that on the hitter.
"The difference (in velocity) between his pitches is what makes him so
tough. A good changeup is 12-14 mph slower than your fastball, and his might
be more than that. The hitter is looking at the arm and hand motion. That's
all they key on. And his is the same with both pitches. So how does a hitter
deal with that when he's looking for a 96-mph fastball? Everyone looks
fastball. They can't sit on that changeup."
It's ironic that Martinez has spent the last week sitting out a five-game
suspension for drilling Robbie Alomar, because it's his willingness to throw
those "message" pitches that might impress his pitching forefathers the most.
"You know, people say he throws three-quarters, but to me, he really
throws sidearm," Jenkins says. "Randy actually throws sidearm, too. And
that's where you get your movement. If you cut it and get under it, it will
go sailing someplace. And if you're the hitter, you'd better get down.
"Pedro's not a big guy, but you can see some coach told him once, 'You'd
better let the hitters know you're out there.' You don't see that approach
much now, but that's the only way you can pitch."
The legacy
It is still too soon, of course, to know how history will regard this
astonishing run of Johnson and Martinez. It may take years to put the current
offensive eruption in perspective, for one thing. And we have to do that
before we can truly evaluate what it means to have two pitchers rowing so
fiercely against a riptide that is swallowing up just about every other
pitcher in its path.
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These new parks are all so small that a lot of balls that used to be fly balls are dropping
in the first row. So that makes what they're doing even more impressive --
because a lot of times, the long fly ball isn't an out. ” |
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Steve Carlton
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But two Hall of Famers from another era have seen enough to know this is
something memorable and special.
"They're both throwbacks," Jenkins says. "They're not intimidated by the
hitter. They're intimidating. And that's a term that was given to pitchers in
the '60s, not pitchers today. Gibson. Drysdale. Koufax. Seaver. Carlton. They
were intimidators. You don't hear that anymore, but you hear it about these
two. These guys could win in any era."
Says Carlton: "It's hard to do what they're doing with these new parks. I
got a lot of outs to right-center and center, because that's where the room
was. I think most outs come on pitches on the outside part of the plate, or
off the plate. And most good pitchers know to stay away. But these new parks
are all so small that a lot of balls that used to be fly balls are dropping
in the first row. So that makes what they're doing even more impressive --
because a lot of times, the long fly ball isn't an out."
When Pedro and the Unit pitch, though, no one moans about those small
ballparks. When Pedro and the Unit pitch, you never hear much grumbling about
the shrinking strike zone, either.
That kind of talk is for those other pitchers, on those other days. These two
generate a conversation all their own.
"It's the Year of the Hitter," Jenkins says. "It's more like the Decade
of the Hitter. So it's good to know there are a couple of pitchers who can
survive.
"It's just too bad," says Jenkins, "there aren't a dozen more like
them."
Jayson Stark is a senior writer at ESPN.com.
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ALSO SEE
Off Base: From novelty to master
Stats Class: Johnson vs. Koufax
Johnson turns into superhero
Jayson Stark archive
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