Happy Birthday to the great Hall of Fame Starting Pitcher, Juan Marichal. In a 16-year career mainly for the San Francisco Giants but also with the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Marichal put together multiple dominant seasons as a starter. During his fourteen years with the Giants, Marichal established himself as one of the great Giants in franchise history and one of the all-time great Starting Pitchers in baseball history. 

Career Statistics/Accolades (1960-1975):

243-142 W-L 2.89 ERA 3,507 IP 2,303 K 1.101 WHIP

  • 10x All-Star 
  •  ERA Champ (1969)

Marichal was known for being a finesse type of pitcher who, very early in his career, developed pinpoint control. Known for his high-leg kick delivery, it gave Marichal the luxury of hiding the pitch type until it was delivered. He had five pitches in his arsenal: a fastball, slider, changeup, curveball, and screwball. Marichal, who averaged 257 Innings Pitched a year, was a six-time 20-game winner, and in those years, he did with an ERA below 2.50 along with 200 plus Strikeouts. Marichal led the league twice in Wins, Shutouts, Complete Games, Innings Pitched, and WHIP. Marichal had nine seasons in which he maintained an ERA under 3.00, and seven of them were consecutive. Also, his 191 Wins in the 1960s were the most by any pitcher during that decade.

To me, there are very few “generational” players in one period of time at their respective positions. You can certainly make the case that Marichal was generational; however, the same can be said about Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson, who pitched during the same time as him in the National League. Marichal was overshadowed by those two guys. In 1965 & 1966, Marichal had seasons in which he would’ve won the Cy Young, but Sandy Koufax had even better seasons; the same thing happened in 1968; Bob Gibson had a better season than Marichal. Alongside Nolan Ryan, Marichal had seasons in which they pitched so well, but a pitcher always pitched a little better than him. 

If you look at Juan Marichal’s career, he certainly had a Hall of Fame-worthy career. Now, he didn’t win a Cy Young, but consider that he had more than eight years of pure dominance, having a good amount of “Black-Bold Face” type on the back of his baseball card, as well as being considered by many who watched the game or played with him as pure dominant, you gotta look past the lack of Cy Young and put him in the Hall of Fame, which he would be. In 1983, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his third year of eligibility. After retiring in 1975, the Giants retired his #27 jersey. In 1999, he was ranked #71 on The Sporting News list of 100 Greatest Ballplayers.

References:

  1. Juan Marichal via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Marichal#
  2. Juan Marichal Career Statistics via Baseball-Reference: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/maricju01.shtml