On Sunday, Justin Verlander reached another of the sport’s greatest milestones.
On Sunday afternoon in San Francisco, Tigers great Justin Verlander became just the 10th pitcher in MLB history to record 3500 strikeouts. The historic moment arrived with two outs in the top of the first inning in a contest with the Washington Nationals. Nathaniel Lowe was Verlander’s victim, foul tipping a 95 mph fourseam fastball into the glove of catcher Patrick Bailey. The announcement went up on the board and Verlander took in the applause as he strode to the dugout, briefly taking off his cap to show his appreciation for the ovation from the Oracle Park faithful.
Verlander finished the game with 3503 strikeouts, now 10th on the all-time strikeout list. With seven more punchouts he’ll pass the legendary Walter Johnson for ninth all-time. Beyond Johnson, Gaylord Perry (3534) and Don Sutton (3574) and Tom Seaver (3640) are next up, though the latter two will have to wait until next season should Verlander choose to pitch another year. With a spot in the Hall of Fame long ago secured, and the quest for 300 wins pretty much out of the question at this point with the 42-year-old sitting at 263 wins, the strikeout list is the place Verlander can continue to climb into the lofty ranks of the sports handful of all-time greatest pitchers.
Overall, Verlander is having a solid enough year, holding a 4.29 ERA and a 4.18 FIP for the Giants. Performing like an average major league starter has never been remotely good enough for him, however. What’s incredible, is that the stuff is still plenty good enough at his age.
He holds a 94.1 mph average on his fourseamer and the movement on it is still quality. His slider and curveball are still effective weapons despite being diminished from his incredible stretch of prime years. The command and the sharpness just aren’t quite what they used to be, and he no longer has the extra gears always available when he needs them, topping out at 97 with one pitch registering 98.3 mph as his peak fastball on the season. At that age that’s still pretty incredible. Nolan Ryan was nodding his approval somewhere today. Verlander is truly one of the last and one of the greatest of the breed of true horses who throw harder than most while outworking them all in terms of pitches and innings thrown per year.
Take a look at his first MLB strikeout with the Tigers in 2005 vs. his 3500th strikeout on Sunday.
At the end of August, we’ll reach the eighth anniversary of the Detroit Tigers trade of Verlander to the Houston Astros. That deal went badly for the Tigers. It was also the point of demarcation into a rebuilding effort that only recently has finally started to bear fruit. For many who followed Verlander’s entire career from draft day excitement about him in 2004, his huge presence in the game even after going to Houston, New York, and now San Francisco, is a prominent marker of time and an era that is coming to a close.
At this point it’s hard to say whose hat Verlander will be wearing when his day comes in Cooperstown. My guess would be that he won’t pick between Detroit and Houston. Most of his best work was done in Detroit and he had already built a Hall of Fame worthy career here before the trade, but that second act of peak performance and finally getting a World Series title with the Astros has to weigh into the equation. With the Tigers, Verlander was the young rock star with an armada of expensive sports cars. In Houston, he and wife Kate Upton built a family, and those years have to be pretty special to him for all those reasons.
In the end, it doesn’t matter too much. Justin Verlander will go down as the greatest pitcher in Detroit Tigers’ history, and one of the all-time greatest pitchers in baseball history.
Congrats, JV. Detroit remembers.
Category: General Sports
