Red Sox players that have a chance to make history

Our last stat will be ruled by the great Nolan Ryan.  He has more strikeouts, at 5,714, than any other pitcher that has played the game.  This is another statistical category that the Red Sox have a good showing on the all-time list.  With five players, that include Roger Clemens, Fergie Jenkins, Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, and Cy Young, the Red Sox make up 25% of the top-20 list.

The active leader for the Red Sox is David Price with 1,600 career strikeouts at the age of 31.  This gives him nine more years to strike out 4,114 more batters, which would put him at a 458 strikeout per year average.  Just to show how insane that number is, let’s look at his career numbers.  Price averages 2,925 pitches thrown per year.  Dividing pitches thrown by strikeouts needed, Price would have to strike out a batter with every sixth pitch thrown, for the rest of his career.

Let’s be honest and say that this is probably going to be one of those records that will never be broken.  If someone from the team had to be picked, for the sake of this article, we would probably look at Chris Sale who has 1,286 strikeouts and is only 28 years old.  To get the strikeout per year total down to a manageable amount, 261 per year, Sale would need to pitch an additional 17 years to break the record currently held by Nolan Ryan.

Next: Red Sox Strut: Mookie Betts and Eduardo Rodriguez

The Red Sox have a great mix of young, talented, players and wise, crafty, veteran players.  The young players have their opportunity to make their mark on, not only the history of the organization, but the history of the league.  It is an exciting time to be a Red Sox fan, and we should look forward to the years to come.