John Smoltz gave an impassioned speech during his Hall of Fame induction about how to restore the longevity of players, by not making baseball a year-round sport.
Longevity, especially for pitchers, is key as more and more pitchers are getting Tommy John Surgery or other similar procedures.
Dan Haren, is one such pitcher who has enjoyed longevity, currently pitching in his 13th season, without much injury. Measuring Haren’s or any other pitcher’s success over time is usually done by looking at wins, innings pitched, and strikeouts.
Generally, if a pitcher can win 150 games, log 2000 strikeouts and 2500 innings they’ve had a fairly long career.
Using 150 wins as a benchmark, the three-time All-Star Haren took the bump against a terrible Milwaukee Brewers team on August 12, vying for win number 150.
Dan Haren Wins Milestone 150th Game
To ruin the ending and excitement to the story, he won. He was dominant over the 5.1 innings he lasted, with his only mistake being a two-run home run given up to Brewers first baseman Adam Lind. Haren struck out six while walking just one, and yielding just five hits en route to a 6-3 Cubs victory. Haren is just the seventh active pitcher to achieve the mark.
Haren ended the night with six strikeouts and only one walk, something Haren is known for. Over his career his strikeout to walk ratio is 4.04, helped by three seasons of a ratio over five and one season of a ratio over four.
Haren, 34, has currently logged 2,371 innings while having 1978 strikeouts.
While obviously not a Hall of Famer, whenever Dan Haren retires, he will be looked as a pitcher whose numbers are better than people think and as someone who was consistently good, despite not being an ace.
