Juan Marichal
The Dominican Dandy threw with such violent elegance that batters couldn't time his delivery, and neither could photographers. Marichal's high leg kick and array of arm angles produced a 2.89 career ERA across 16 seasons, anchoring Giants rotations that battled the Dodgers through baseball's golden age in California.
That 118 career ERA+ tells only part of the story. Marichal peaked at 172 ERA+ in his prime, when he regularly threw complete games and struck out over 200 hitters six different seasons. His 2,303 career strikeouts came in an era when power pitchers were rarer commodities.
Nine All-Star selections reflect his sustained excellence through the 1960s, when he won 191 games in a decade dominated by great pitching. The Hall of Fame rightfully inducted him in 1983, recognizing a craftsman whose repertoire and durability defined Dominican baseball's first superstar.
Career · Hitting
16 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | SF | 11 | 31 | 0 | 1 | .129 | .358 | — |
| 1961 | SF | 30 | 59 | 0 | 3 | .119 | .277 | — |
| 1962 | SF | 38 | 89 | 0 | 10 | .236 | .513 | — |
| 1963 | SF | 42 | 112 | 1 | 4 | .179 | .423 | — |
| 1964 | SF | 33 | 97 | 0 | 3 | .144 | .323 | — |
| 1965 | SF | 39 | 98 | 0 | 9 | .173 | .384 | — |
| 1966 | SF | 37 | 112 | 1 | 15 | .250 | .585 | — |
| 1967 | SF | 26 | 79 | 0 | 3 | .177 | .451 | — |
| 1968 | SF | 38 | 123 | 0 | 5 | .163 | .376 | — |
| 1969 | SF | 38 | 109 | 0 | 3 | .138 | .332 | — |
| 1970 | SF | 34 | 85 | 0 | 3 | .059 | .138 | 19 |
| 1971 | SF | 37 | 105 | 2 | 9 | .133 | .388 | 57 |
| 1972 | SF | 25 | 51 | 0 | 0 | .196 | .447 | 67 |
| 1973 | SF | 34 | 69 | 0 | 7 | .188 | .457 | 65 |
| 1974 | BOS | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — |
| 1975 | LAD | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | 0 |
| Career | 475 | 1221 | 4 | 75 | .165 | — | — | |
Career · Pitching
16 seasons| Year | Team | G | IP | W | L | ERA | ERA+ | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | SF | 11 | 81.3 | 6 | 2 | 2.66 | 144 | 58 | 1.070 |
| 1961 | SF | 29 | 185.0 | 13 | 10 | 3.89 | 104 | 124 | 1.249 |
| 1962 | SF | 37 | 262.7 | 18 | 11 | 3.36 | 118 | 153 | 1.230 |
| 1963 | SF | 41 | 321.3 | 25 | 8 | 2.41 | 144 | 248 | 0.996 |
| 1964 | SF | 33 | 269.0 | 21 | 8 | 2.48 | 144 | 206 | 1.089 |
| 1965 | SF | 39 | 295.3 | 22 | 13 | 2.13 | 164 | 240 | 0.914 |
| 1966 | SF | 37 | 307.3 | 25 | 6 | 2.23 | 158 | 222 | 0.859 |
| 1967 | SF | 26 | 202.3 | 14 | 10 | 2.76 | 120 | 166 | 1.171 |
| 1968 | SF | 38 | 326.0 | 26 | 9 | 2.43 | 123 | 218 | 1.046 |
| 1969 | SF | 37 | 299.7 | 21 | 11 | 2.10 | 172 | 205 | 0.994 |
| 1970 | SF | 34 | 242.7 | 12 | 10 | 4.12 | 94 | 123 | 1.306 |
| 1971 | SF | 37 | 279.0 | 18 | 11 | 2.94 | 118 | 159 | 1.075 |
| 1972 | SF | 25 | 165.0 | 6 | 16 | 3.71 | 88 | 72 | 1.345 |
| 1973 | SF | 34 | 207.3 | 11 | 15 | 3.82 | 98 | 87 | 1.293 |
| 1974 | BOS | 11 | 57.3 | 5 | 1 | 4.87 | 74 | 21 | 1.308 |
| 1975 | LAD | 2 | 6.0 | 0 | 1 | 13.50 | 27 | 1 | 2.667 |
| Career | 471 | 3507.2 | 243 | 142 | — | — | 2303 | — | |
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.