Randy Johnson will become only the 24th pitcher in history to win 300 games.

Photo by dwighta3, used under creative commons license.

"Back then I was the minority," said Johnson, who dominated the game in the late 1990s and early 2000s, winning the Cy Young Award in 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. "Maybe a handful of people threw consistently 95, 98 [miles per hour] for seven or eight innings long. Now I throw 90 to 93 [mph] and I know how to pitch, I have for a long time -- I knew how to pitch when I threw 98 [mph], that's why I was so successful at it.

"It took me a long time to learn that, but obviously I had good days and bad days like everybody else. Now throwing 93 [mph], I'm [in] the majority once again, because the majority of Major Leaguers throw that. It's as much as a challenge now than it ever has been just because of my age and how I recover between starts. I have good days and I have bad days."

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For the Big Unit, the big number is part of a long journey through various teams and cities, starting with the Expos through Seattle's first heydays and on to Houston, Arizona twice, the Yankees and now the Giants.

"Everywhere I went was pivotal," recalls Johnson. "Montreal was the team that drafted me out of college. They took the initiative to see something, they thought I was Major League caliber stuff. It was a long process to finally get there with that organization, but they took the chance.

"Then getting traded to Seattle. They gave me the opportunity to pitch every fifth day regardless of how I did and they did that for nine years and it panned out pretty well for both of us. Then I got traded to Houston. That was the best two months of my career, arguably. I've never matched that two months, anywhere I've been since that. Then I became a free agent and went to Arizona, won a championship and did some nice individual things."

If you ask "who was the best pitcher of the last two decades?", most people would come up with Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez or Greg Maddux, depending on whom you ask, but only few would name Johnson first. Sure, he's right up there, but it seems he's just a tad behind. My guess is that the fact that he switched teams quite often in his career, even during his prime years, has slightly diminished his image as a pitcher. Because if you look at the numbers, you could very well make the case that Johnson was quite clearly THE best pitcher of the last 20 years, even though only few think about him that way. But don't take my word for it, hear it from arguably the most knowledgable baseball mind of today: Bill James:

I have a system of "ranking" seasons by pitchers. It's not a perfect system, I suppose -- my point system considers: wins, losses and saves; strikeouts and walks; innings pitched and ERA -- but one of its virtues is that it is not made up to make Randy Johnson look good, or to make Roger Clemens look good, or anything like that ... it's just made up to compare seasons.

By this system the best season by any of these four pitchers (Randy, Clemens, Maddux and Martinez) was Pedro's in 1999 (23-4, 2.07 ERA, 313 strikeouts, 37 walks).

However, the second-best season by any of the pitchers was Johnson's in 2002, the third-best is Johnson's in 2001, and, of the 10 best seasons by these four pitchers, Randy has six. (Pedro and Clemens have two each.)

Then I looked at every two-year stretch by any of these pitchers, every three-year stretch, every four-year stretch, etc., up to 15 years.

The best two-year stretch by any of these pitchers, by my method, is Randy's in 2001-2002 (45-11, 2.31 ERA, 706 strikeouts).

The best three-year stretch by any of these pitchers was Randy's from 2000-2002 (64-18, 2.39 ERA, 1,053 strikeouts).

The best four-year stretch was Johnson's from 1999 to 2002 (81-27, 2.39 ERA, 1,417 strikeouts). This is the only four-year stretch by any of these pitchers in which he won 80 games. Clemens won 100 games over a stretch of five years (as did Johnson), but never won 80 over a stretch of four years.

The best five-year stretch was Johnson's from 1998 to 2002 (100-38, 2.54 ERA, 1,746 strikeouts). Clemens also won 100 games from 1986 to 1990, but his winning percentage was lower (100-42), his ERA higher and he had 500 fewer strikeouts.

The best six-year stretch was Johnson's from 1997 to 2002 (120-42, 2.49 ERA, 2,037 strikeouts). Johnson was the only pitcher in the group to win 120 games over a stretch of six years, and this was the longest stretch of seasons averaging 20 or more wins by any of these pitchers.

Just wow! Did you know that? That was quite an eye opener for me.

By the way, the above quote is from a conversation with Joe Posnanski and it goes without saying that this is a highly entertaining and informative read, so check it out if you haven't already.

And make sure to watch Randy Johnson's start tonight. It will be the last time anyone wins 300 games - for a while.

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