The Dominant Club

Baseball pitchers are supposed to get outs while avoiding runs, and the way to avoid runs is to avoid baserunners. The standard way to generate a baserunner is through a walk or a hit. The most dominant way to avoid a baserunner is via the strikeout. To be good, then, pitchers would like to strike lots of batters out while allowing very few hits or walks. But here's an interesting thing: almost no one in Major League Baseball history has managed to strike out more batters over their careers than they have allowed to reach base on a hit or a walk. As best I can tell, in all of MLB history only two starting pitchers have done this over the course of a whole career. Randy Johnson gave up 3346 hits and issued 1497 walks, a total of 4843, and he struck out 4875 batters, for a difference of +32. Pedro Martinez, the best starting pitcher ever in my opinion, allowed 2221 hits and 760 walks for a total of 2981 such baserunners, and he struck out 3154 men, for a difference of +173. No one else has ever maintained this feat over a whole career as a starting pitcher.