Fans at tonight’s Marlins-Mets game are in for a potential treat tonight. No, the game hasn’t been canceled, rather the crowd gets the chance to bear witness to Florida starter Javier Vazquez becoming just the 30th man ever to fan 2,500 batters. No doubt this is a huge and rare accomplishment since only one other active player (Tim Wakefield) is even over 2,000 strikeouts right now. So as those fans watch Vazquez attempt to register the six strikeouts he needs to reach 2,500, they should think only about how impressive the feat is, even if Vazquez is the worst pitcher to ever achieve that milestone.
To illustrate what a tremendous achievement this is for Vazquez, take a look at the 29 other men who have already reached that plateau:
16 Hall of Famers – Christy Mathewson, Tim Keefe, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn, Cy Young, Jim Bunning, Bob Gibson, Ferguson Jenkins, Walter Johnson, Gaylord Perry, Don Sutton, Tom Seaver, Bert Blyleven, Steve Carlton, Nolan Ryan
8 future Hall of Famers (based on common sense and Baseball-Reference’s Hall of Fame monitor score, with 100 being a likely Hall of Famer) – Tom Glavine, Mike Mussina, John Smoltz, Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson
The remaining members of the 2,500 K Club are Mickey Lolich (three-time All-Star, 3.44 career ERA, 217 wins, 98 HoF Monitor), Frank Tanana (three-time All-Star, 3.66 career ERA, 240 wins, 55 HoF Monitor), David Cone (six-time All-Star, Cy Young winner, 3.46 career ERA, 196 wins, 103 HoF Monitor), Chuck Finley (five-time All-Star, 3.85 career ERA, 200 wins, 54 HoF Monitor) and Jerry Koosman (two-time All-Star, Cy Young runner-up, 3.36 ERA, 222 wins, 59 HoF Monitor). All fine players with very good, but not quite great credentials.
Which brings us to Javy. At age 34, Vazquez has had a decent career, one that started out with a fair amount of promise, but he has barely been more than a mid-rotation guy for the bulk of his career. As of right now, his career ERA stands at 4.28, the worst ERA of the 30 players and the only one north of 4.00. His career record is 159-160, the only losing record out of anyone on the list. Say what you want about those two stats and how meaningful they are, but even with their faults, you can see just how far a cry Vazquez is from his new “peers.” And since Javier is 34, he is only going to get worse, which is saying something since his ERA is at 4.63 this year and was 5.32 last year. The final nail in his coffin though is the Hall of Fame Monitor score, a measure that shows how his stats and reputation stack up all-time. Vazquez scores a limp 27, not even half of the lowest score from the 29 players above him, and that doesn’t even factor in that he not once, but twice, infuriated every Yankee fan on the planet.
I could go on and on pointing out the other areas where Vazquez fails to measure up to the other pitchers who have K’d 2500+, but at a point it becomes mean-spirited. Just because Javier is the worst pitcher on the list doesn’t mean that’s he a bad pitcher overall. One obviously has to have a great deal of talent to amass such an impressive strikeout total at the relatively young age of 34. Even if his career ERA+ of 104 is merely slightly above average, his career 8.0 K/9 rate is a strong indicator of the kind of skill he does possess even if he could only put it all together for three or four very good seasons amongst his 14 in the league. Plus, the man does have a career WAR of 53.4, so he has given his teams plenty of value over the years, just not Hall of Fame value.
So, from the rest of us here at The Outside Corner, we would like to give you a pre-emptive congratulations, Javier. Just don’t celebrate too much.
