Johan Santana

Johan Alexander Santana (born March 13, 1979) is a Major League Baseball left-handed starting pitcher who plays for the Minnesota Twins.

Biography

Born in Tovar, Mérida State, Venezuela, Santana was signed by the Houston Astros as a non-draft free agent in 1995. Selected by the Florida Marlins from Houston in the 1999 rule 5 draft, Santana was traded to the Twins. Finally, he made his debut in the 2000 season.

Santana is tough on both righthanded and lefthanded hitters. He works quickly and throws a 95 mph (153 km/h) fastball, a hard slider (which he has worked into a slurve) and a changeup. His pitches are too close to take, but difficult to drive, then batters find themselves lunging after balls that are down and out of the strike zone. He frequently rolls up double-digit strikeout totals, and many of his fans write his name with the middle initial "K" (the baseball scoring symbol for a strikeout) in place of his real middle initial. He consistently works to eliminate the difference in his throwing motions, making it very difficult for opposing batters to guess which pitch he's throwing.

A long reliever early in his career, Santana transitioned from relief to starting in 2003 after pitching in the bullpen nearly four months. He went 8-0 after August and pitched the ALDS opening game against the Yankees.

2004 season

In 2004 Santana enjoyed one of the great second halves of modern times. His streak of dominance has been compared to Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan. He became the first pitcher since 1961 to give up four or fewer hits in ten straight starts, and his 13-0 record broke the old Major League second-half mark shared between Burt Hooton and Rick Sutcliffe.

It is interesting to compare that Santana's other second-half numbers, 11.13 strikeouts per nine innings, 1.21 ERA, 4.74 hits per nine innings, and 6.73 baserunners per nine innings, are mostly better than Bob Gibson's famous 1968 numbers (7.91 SO per 9 IP, 1.12 ERA, 5.84 hits per 9 IP, 7.77 baserunners per 9 IP). Beside this, Santana set a team season record with 265 strikeouts, surpassing the old 258 mark registered by Bert Blyleven in 1973.

Santana finished in good form with a 20-6 record, and lead the American League pitchers in strikeouts (265), ERA (2.61), strikeouts per 9 IP (10.46), WHIP (0.92), batting average allowed (.192), OBP (.249), SLG (.315) and OPS (.564), walking only 54 in 228 innings. Opponents stole only six bases in seven attempts against him, and his 20 victories ranked him second behind only Curt Schilling, who won 21 games for the Red Sox. He easily won the AL Cy Young Award over Schilling with all 28 first-place votes.

2005 season

In the first inning of 2005, Santana struggled, giving up four runs, but he quickly regained his composure and returned to his Cy Young-winning form in an 8-4 victory over the Seattle Mariners. In his second game, he rocked the Chicago White Sox with 11 strikeouts as the Twins rolled to a 5-2 win. Following a brief slump in May 2005, Santana worked on improving his pitching form and was immediately rewarded with a seven-inning, two-run outing against the Toronto Blue Jays in which the Twins won 7-2. Santana finished with the second-lowest ERA in the American League, with an ERA of 2.87. Indians pitcher Kevin Millwood was the only pitcher with a lower ERA (2.86). He finished third in the Cy Young voting, finishing behind the winner, the Los Angeles Angels' Bartolo Colón, and the second place finisher, the Yankees' reliever Mariano Rivera.

Career Stats

SEAS	AGE	TM	LG	W	L	G	GS	CG	SHO	GF	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	HBP	WP	BFP	ERA
2000	21	MIN	AL	2	3	30	5	0	0	9	0	86.0	102	64	62	11	54	64	2	5	398	6.49
2001	22	MIN	AL	1	0	15	4	0	0	5	0	43.7	50	25	23	6	16	28	3	3	195	4.74
2002	23	MIN	AL	8	6	27	14	0	0	2	1	108.3	84	41	36	7	49	137	1	15	452	2.99
2003	24	MIN	AL	12	3	45	18	0	0	7	0	158.3	127	56	54	17	47	169	3	6	644	3.07
2004	25	MIN	AL	20	6	34	34	1	1	0	0	228.0	156	70	66	24	54	265	9	7	881	2.61
2005	26	MIN	AL	16	7	33	33	3	2	0	0	231.7	180	77	74	22	45	238	1	8	910	2.87
TOT	6			59	25	184	108	4	3	23	1	856.0	699	333	315	87	265	901	19	44	3480	3.31

Legend

Abbrev	Explanation
SEAS	Year Season was played
AGE	Player's Age during season
TM	Team played for
LG	League team played in
W	Pitching Wins
L	Pitching Losses
G	Games pitched in
GS	Games Started as pitcher
CG	Complete Games
SHO	Shutouts
GF	Games Finished as relief pitcher
SV	Saves
IP	Innings Pitched
H	Hits allowed
R	Runs allowed
ER	Earned Runs allowed
HR	Home Runs allowed
BB	Bases on Balls (Walks)
SO	Strikeouts (K's)
HBP	Players Hit By Pitches
WP	Wild Pitches
BFP	Batters Faced while Pitching
ERA	Earned Run Average (Formulae: 9*ER/IP)

Highlights

Fanned former teammate David Ortiz for his 1,000th career strikeout (June 13, 2006)
All-Star (2005, 2006)
Cy Young Award (2004, unanimous selection)
Led league in win-loss percentage (.800, 2003)
Top 10 Cy Young Award (7th, 2003; Winner, 2004; 3rd, 2005)

Trivia

During the 2006 baseball season, Santana and the Twins organization purchased a newly-retired fire engine from the city of Coon Rapids, Minnesota, for Santana's hometown of Tovar.

External links

Aaron's Baseball Blog - analysis
ESPN - profile and daily updates
Baseball Reference - career statistics

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