Fastest to 200 Strikeouts in a Season

Bryan
Bryan
Jul 22, 2017 · 2 min read

Fewest team games to reach 200 K in a season since 1913:

Team Games: Name Year, # of starts/IP in those starts/IP per start GS, # of relief appearances/IP in relief/IP per relief appearance GR (if any), Strike Outs K, Total Batters Faced BF, the % of batters that the pitcher struck out

71: Nolan Ryan 1977, 19/161.1/8.5 GS, 200 K, 685 BF, 29.2%

83: Bob Feller 1946, 22/194/8.8 GS, 202 K, 799 BF, 25.3%

83: Randy Johnson 1999, 19/145.2/7.7 GS, 200 K, 581 BF, 34.4%

83: Randy Johnson 2001, 19/132.2/7.0 GS, 202 K, 533 BF, 37.9%

85: Nolan Ryan 1973, 22/178/8.1 GS, 1/2/2 GR, 203 K, 755 BF, 26.9%

86: Roger Clemens 1988, 21/168.2/8.0 GS, 202 K, 659 BF, 30.1%

88: Steve Carlton 1972, 24/196.1/8.2 GS, 201 K, 774 BF, 26.0%

89: Sandy Koufax 1962, 21/166.2/7.9 GS, 1/1/1 GR, 202 K, 666 BF, 30.3%

91: Sandy Koufax 1965, 22/178/8.1 GS, 204 K, 703 BF, 29.0%

91: Randy Johnson 2000, 20/152/7.6 GS, 210 K, 583 BF, 36.0%

94: Sam McDowell 1970, 24/196/8.2 GS, 206 K, 786 BF, 26.2%

94: Vida Blue 1971, 24/204.1/8.5 GS, 208 K, 773 BF, 26.9%

97: Nolan Ryan 1974, 25/191.1/7.7 GS, 201 K, 818 BF, 24.6%

97: Randy Johnson 1995, 21/146.2/7.0 GS, 206 K, 600 BF, 34.3%

98: Sandy Koufax 1966, 25/202.1/8.1 GS, 201 K, 799 BF, 25.2%

98: Tom Seaver 1970, 23/198/8.6 GS, 1/0.1/0.3 GR, 201 K, 772 BF, 26.0%

98: Chris Sale 2017, 20/141.1/7.1 GS, 200 K, 549 BF, 36.4%

To find the seasons I used baseball-reference.com Play Index to find the most games with 5 or more strikeouts in a team’s first 98 games and then looked at the game logs for the 43 seasons since 1913 that a pitcher had at least 170 strike outs in games matching those criteria. I then checked the 5 seasons of 300+ K since 1913 that aren’t among those 43.

The all-time record is probably held by Matt Kilroy with 513 K in 583 IP for the 1886 Baltimore Orioles who played 131 games, basic math suggests it took him around 51 team games to strike out 200. 1886 Toad Ramsey and 1884 Hugh Daily have similar seasons. I’m not aware of any source of game logs for seasons prior to 1913.

1900–1912 the most strike outs in a season is 349 by Rube Waddell in 1904, well ahead of 313 by Walter Johnson in 1910. Rube’s 1904 Philadelphia Athletics played 151 games, basic math suggests it took around 87 team games to strike out 200. Rube pitched 383 innings, it’s certainly possible he struck out 200 in considerably fewer than 87 games but then struck out fewer batters in the 2nd half of the season due to arm fatigue.

For an entire season with at least 20 starts only Randy Johnson in 1999 and 2001 and Pedro Martinez in 1999 averaged at least 10 K per start. Chris Sale currently has exactly 10 K per start.

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