Randy Johnson retires after 22 seasons, 303 victories - ESPN

Randy Johnson retires after 22 seasons, 303 victories

The Big Unit is not only a first ballot Hall of Famer, but is not at all out of the debate when you discuss the greatest pitcher of all time. That future election should be used as a litmus test to clean out the incompetent Hall of Fame voters. If anyone fails to list this guy on their ballot, their voting privileges should be immediately revoked.

In the entire history of baseball, there has only been one case where a team won 90% of the games started by a regular starter (30 starts or more). That happened in 1995, when the Mariners went 27-3 in Randy's starts, including an incredible dominant complete game performance in the single game playoff against the Angels, when he faced only 30 batters, fanning 12 of them. It can reasonably be argued that Randy's 1995 season was the best of all time. Some other fascinating tidbits about that season:

• When Randy did not start, the team won 52 and lost 63. That was a worse record than the last place Oakland As. In other words, The Unit took a last place team and single handedly took them to the division championship.
  
• My favorite Randy Johnson stat from 1995: lefties got 11 hits against him that YEAR. That's right. Not a misprint. In 30 starts, more than 200 innings, he allowed 11 hits to left handers.
  

Of course, 1995 wasn't even a major outlier in his career. There were the three victories in the 2001 World Series, for example. And you probably know that he won five Cy Youngs. But did you remember that he also finished second three times and third once?

As an Astros fan, I got to see a half-Randy that was even more impressive than his 1995 performance. In his half of a season with us in 1998, he made 11 starts. He only allowed 12 runs in those 11 games. He got a decision in every one of them, went 10-1 with four shutouts, and posed an ERA of 1.28. He was invincible in the Astrodome, as close to perfect as any pitcher has ever been. He started five games, the first four of which were complete game shutouts. He won the last one as well, posting an era of 0.42 in those five starts. God only knows what his already impressive stats might have looked like if he had pitched for years in our pitcher's paradise. It was that amazing performance with the Astros, of course, which prompted the D-Backs to sign him to a six-year contract even though he was already 35 at the time. I'm not sure if it was the smartest contract signing in history, but I'd have to say that the D-Backs definitely did OK when they signed this guy. He won the Cy Young in every one of his first four years on the team.

Of the eight pitchers "most similar" to Randy, six are in the Hall of Fame, and the other two are Glavine and Clemens. And those six are not marginal hall of famers, but superstars: Grove, Feller, Seaver, Gibson, Carlton, Palmer.