2nd quickest to 2k Ks

[Sour Masher]

Kershaw just got to 2,000 Ks, second fastest by games pitched to Randy Johnson. Of course, Randy was a late bloomer, so Kershaw got there younger. I think Kershaw has a good shot at taking Steve Carlton's spot of #4 on the all time list, and with a punchers chance of finishing second all time, supplanting Randy, if everything breaks right for him.

I don't think anyone will ever catch Nolan Ryan though. In different circumstances, I think Ryan could have ended up with 30-40 more wins, given his career stat line and utter dominance (not that 324 is anything to sneeze at). He must have had some truly craptastic teams behind him. For instance, in 1987, he went 8-16 while leading the league in era, and piling up 270 Ks. Crazy. I really got into baseball right when Ryan was leaving it. Wish I'd gotten to watch him in his prime. I suspect he was underappreciated in his time, based on the past false ideas about wins mattering more than things pitchers can actually control.

[rhd]

I don't think anyone will ever catch Nolan Ryan though. In different circumstances, I think Ryan could have ended up with 30-40 more wins, given his career stat line and utter dominance (not that 324 is anything to sneeze at). He must have had some truly craptastic teams behind him. For instance, in 1987, he went 8-16 while leading the league in era, and piling up 270 Ks. Crazy. I really got into baseball right when Ryan was leaving it. Wish I'd gotten to watch him in his prime. I suspect he was underappreciated in his time, based on the past false ideas about wins mattering more than things pitchers can actually control.

Yeah, Ryan's K rcd is absolutely unbreakable. It's amazing enough even for his era, which was the era of 4-man rotations and 20+ CGs per year for the best pitchers. In today's era of 5-man rotations and avg of 5.9 IP per start and declining, it's impossible until they create bionic arms or bioengineered halt to aging.

[Sour Masher]

Yeah, Ryan's K rcd is absolutely unbreakable. It's amazing enough even for his era, which was the era of 4-man rotations and 20+ CGs per year for the best pitchers. In today's era of 5-man rotations and avg of 5.9 IP per start and declining, it's impossible until they create bionic arms or bioengineered halt to aging.

Yeah, I wonder how all that will work in terms of what is considered cheating or not. There will likely be breakthroughs in anti-aging in our lifetime that makes 50 year old bodies perform like 30 year old bodies, as we push past the century mark on life expectancy. Also, there could be gene manipulation stuff. All SF sounding now, but it is all possible. I wonder how that will all be sorted. What is the difference between chemical enhancement, bionic enhancement, and genetic enhancement? But yeah, it would take one or more of those for someone to break Ryan's K record.