Wake Up With Randy Johnson Striking Out 12 In A Complete Game To Clinch The AL West (1995)
Randy Johnson’s slider was fucking impossible. FanGraphs only has pitch type data going back to 2002, so that still leaves 13 of his 21 seasons unaccounted for. But from the information that we do have, we can see just how often RJ threw his slider to opposing hitters. Over those 8 seasons, RJ threw his slider 38.6% of the time. In 2002, the year in which he captured his fifth Cy Young award, which was his fourth consecutive and the last of his career, Johnson threw his slider 41.8% of the time. He struck out a league-best 334 batters that year. Two years later, he’d go to the slider 43.6% of the time, leading the league in strikeouts for his ninth and final time (290).