I have to say that year, Kevin Brown was most dominating pitcher. Sorry, J.Smoltz, he was better. Yeah, he only had 17 wins but man, he shut down everybody. The team didn't produce any runs for him, though. I remember he wore 41 for the Rangers and Orioles but with the Marlins, he wore No. 27. He had a delivery that would cause him to turn his back and then fall towards the first base line. I was thinking he was going to get hurt and but he never did until he got to L.A. and then with New York when his body broke down. With the Marlins and Padres, he never got tired and threw harder in later innings. I didn't see that in Texas or in Baltimore *"the acuity" of the pitches from inning one to the last all the way from April to October. I was suspicious of his dominance with Florida. Lets go back and find why?
I saw him pitch in 1993. He threw hard and pitched a lot of innings. But he always got tired toward the end of the season and his pitches weren't that sharp in later innings. I remember when he won 21 games but he had support from Juan Gonzalez, Dean Palmer, Ivan Rodriguez, Julio Franco, and a traded Jose Canseco as well as Tom Henke. But in 1994, he stunk and in 1995 with the Orioles, he really stunk (he and Phil Regan). So, he comes to the Marlins and just dominates? Now, the Marlins who had decent players in Gary Sheffield (break out), Jeff Conine, Charles Johnson (can catch but hitting?), Devon White, and Rob Nen. Young players in Quilvio Veras, Kurt Abbott and Edgar Renteria. But the Marlins never seem to respond to Rene Lachemann's managerial style. Despite all those issues, Kevin Brown's fast ball and the fork ball was something else in Florida and in San Diego. In short, he didn't need support.
I don't remember too much about 1998 except for the Yankees (ESPN kisses up them, thank you MLB Network) but Brown was definitely better than Tom Glavine or Greg Maddux. Soon afterwards, he moved to L.A. and got that big contract as well as the rumors and nagging injuries. Now, the question becomes of why those pitchers that he beat out don't speak out against him but will against batters who were rumored to have taken steroids. I have heard Smoltz, Glavine, and Maddux have talked about their win totals without steroid era of batters. But this man took away your era title and wins. He won two games in the 1997 NLCS with the Marlins and one with the Padres in 1998 against the Braves.What about middle-inning relief pitchers who were on the juice? You "pitches" need to start fessing up or does that mean, you have to tell the truth about yourselves? I guess there is a code of silence, here.
Former catcher, Carlton Fisk on Roger Clemens: *"The reason he got let go from the Red Sox [after the 1996 season] was because he was starting to break down," Fisk told the Tribune (Chicago Tribune). "His last couple of years in Boston just weren't very productive, a la 'The Rocket.' Then all of a sudden he goes to Toronto and he wants to show somebody something. Then he gets two consecutive Cy Young Awards [in '97 and '98]. Come on, give me a bucket."
*-- Carlton Fisk (ESPNBoston.com article, Jan. 20, 2010)
