How can a man who struck out nearly 900 more batters than anyone else in the history of the game be overrated?
When his name is Nolan Ryan.
How can a man who walked nearly 1,000 more batters than anyone else in the history of the game be underrated?
When his name is Nolan Ryan.
With the exception of Pete Rose, perhaps no player’s career sparks more debate than Nolan Ryan’s. He was a physical anomaly, an intimidating force on the mound, and was the first player in the history of the game to sign a contract that paid him an average of one million dollars per season.
When you play as long as Ryan did you’re bound to put up some interesting statistics. Here are some of my favorites:
1:
In 1987, his age-40 season, Nolan Ryan led the N.L. in strikeouts, E.R.A., and F.I.P. among other things. He posted a WHIP of 1.14. The Astros scored 0 or 1 runs in 1/4 of his starts. His record was 8-16.
2:
Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez struck out in 53% of his at-bats against Nolan Ryan. He struck out in 17% of his at-bats against everyone else.
3:
Nolan Ryan faced Roger Maris, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds.
4:
Norm Cash felt so overmatched by Ryan that he once brought a table leg to the plate in a spring training game. “The table leg or Louisville Slugger, it made no difference,” said Cash.
5:
Entering the 2019 season, 354 pitchers in baseball history have struck out 1,183 or more batters in their careers. Nolan Ryan struck out 1,183 DIFFERENT batters
6:
Entering the 2019 season, CC Sabathia is the active major league baseball strikeout leader. He only needs to strike out 250 hitters per season for the next 11 years to pass Nolan Ryan.
7:
Rod Carew (29) Andre Dawson (25) Carlton Fisk (24) George Brett (18) Tim Raines (18) are all Hall of Famers who struck out more against Nolan Ryan than anyone else in their careers.
8:
Nolan Ryan recorded at least one strikeout against 47 different Hall of Famers, not including pitchers.
9:
Nolan Ryan had 198 career non-win quality starts during his career. He was 0-107 with a 2.27 ERA, 1.166 WHIP, and 9.77 K/9 in those starts. via theaceofspaeder
10:
Fathers and sons struck out by Nolan Ryan:
Sandy Alomar Sr., Sandy Alomar Jr., & Roberto Alomar
Bobby Bonds & Barry Bonds
Tito Francona &Terry Francona
Ken Griffey Sr. & Ken Griffey Jr.
Hal McRae & Brian McRae
Tony Perez & Eduardo Perez
Ducky Schofield & Dick Schofield
Maury Wills & Bump Wills
11:
Nolan Ryan made 6 starts for the Astros in May of 1980. They scored 7 total runs for him. He still won two of those games.
12:
From 1973 through 1991 there were 300 games in which a pitcher went 9 or more innings and allowed 2 or fewer hits. Ryan accounted for 26 of them.
13:
From 1968, his first full year in the bigs, through 1993, his final season in the bigs, there were 14 seasons in which a pitcher struck out at least 300 batters. Ryan accounted for 43% of them.
14:
Nolan Ryan struck out 26% of the batters he faced in the 1970s. (2,678 of 10,453)
15:
The Ryan Express struck out 26 different hitters at least 20 times during their careers, including four Hall-of-Famers.
16:
Nolan Ryan struck out 163 different batters at least 10 times
