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The 200 IP, 10+ K/9 Pitcher
In the 1965 season, a threshold was passed on big league pitching mounds that had never been exceeded in the history of baseball up to that point. No pitcher throwing 200 innings or more - whether he be Bob Feller, Herb Score, Walter Johnson, or Rube Waddell - had ever struck out 10 or more batters per 9 innings. In 1965, both "Sudden" Sam McDowell and Sandy Koufax eclipsed that mark, ushering in a new era of strikeout proficiency in which the threshold would be surpassed 39 more times.
What had changed from Feller's years to Koufax's? In the 1930's and 40's, the average pitcher making 30 or more starts in a season pitched around 255 innings and completed nearly 18 of the games he started. By the 1950's, he was throwing 10 fewer innings and completing about 3 fewer games. By 1965, the year of Koufax's and McDowell's accomplishments, the average pitcher was only completing about 10 games and throwing 238 innings. As the expectations for starting pitchers to go deep into games was lessening, pitchers were now able to hold less back, fostering an increasing trend of quality over quantity. In Koufax's case, this trend was not manifested in the innings he pitched in a season - as he threw a whopping 335.2 innings and completed 27 games in 1965 - but in the innings he pitched in a career, as he had to leave the game at age 30.
In the 70's and 80's, Nolan Ryan would pitch 200+ innings and post K/9 rates over 10 seven times including an unbelievable 3 times at age 40 or older after having not done so since age 30. (And we think Roger Clemens was doping?) In the 1990's and 2000's, Randy Johnson would approach Ryan's numbers and surpass them, hitting the 10+ K rate ten times in his 22 professional seasons. Curt Schilling (4 times), Pedro Martinez (3) and Tim Lincecum (2) are the only pitchers to join Ryan and Johnson on this list multiple times. There are 13 one-timers on the list including the only Twins pitcher, Johan Santana, who did it in 2004.
Here is the complete list:
Randy Johnson (1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007)
Nolan Ryan (1972, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1987, 1989, 1990)
Curt Schilling (1997, 1998, 2001, 2002)
Pedro Martinez (1997, 1999, 2000)
Tim Lincecum (2008, 2009)
Roger Clemens 1998
Dwight Gooden 1984
Scott Kazmir 2007
Sandy Koufax 1965
Sam McDowell 1965
Hideo Nomo 1997
Mark Prior 2003
Johan Santana 2004
Jason Schmidt 2004
Mike Scott 1986
Ben Sheets 2004
Justin Verlander 2009
Kerry Wood 2003
Here is the breakdown in average innings pitched and complete games for pitchers with 30+ starts by decade:
1930s - 257 IP, 17.9 CG
1940s - 253 IP, 17.9 CG
1950s - 244 IP, 14.8 CG
1960s - 241 IP, 11.2 CG
1970s - 245 IP, 11.5 CG
1980s - 224 IP, 6.9 CG
1990s - 212 IP, 3.6 CG
2000s - 204 IP, 1.7 CG
2010s - 203 IP, 1.6 CG
A breakdown of the number of 200 inning - 10 K/9 pitchers by year is shown below. I find it odd that there is such a aberation between the years of 1997 and 2004. While this total study comprises a very small sample (39 instances) it still seems odd that this period - which I equate to the peak steroid era - should appear and that years since have diminished to the point that no pitcher has passed this threshold for the last three seasons. The last period this long was in the early 80's. Conspiracy theorists - draw your own conclusions. Perhaps we are only seeing the end of one era and the beginning of another as teams move more and more to imposing inning restrictions and pitch counts on younger arms.
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