San Diego Padres: Top Strikeout Pitchers In Team History

Coming in at number four in career strikeouts, Eric Show.

Not only does Eric Show and his 951 strikeouts rank fourth-most in San Diego history, his 100 career wins is the most in franchise history.

Overshadowing his status as the Padres’ all-time winningest pitcher is Show’s unique personal life and struggles with substance abuse that lead to his death at the young age of 37. Tom Friend penned an amazing piece on Show a few years ago which I urge you to check out if you aren’t familiar with Show’s life story.

As for his baseball life, Show was drafted by the Padres in the 18th round of the 1978 draft and made his MLB debut in 1981 as a reliever. Over 10 seasons with San Diego, Show pitched to a 3.59 ERA and 1.28 WHIP over 1, 603 innings.

His best season came in 1988 as Show set career highs in wins (16) and innings pitched (234) while posting career lows in walk rate (5.7%) and WHIP (1.08). His two walks per nine innings ranked eighth best in all of the major leagues.

Most baseball fans outside of San Diego probably aren’t too familiar with Show outside of this historic moment from Major League Baseball history.

That hit became the 4,192nd of Pete Rose’s career, breaking Ty Cobb’s all-time hit record in September 1985.

Show didn’t just produce on the mound, he was a fairly decent hitter, as well. In 1984, Show hit .246 with three doubles and three home runs in 76 at-bats. He finished his career as a .160 hitter.

Of all five pitchers on this list, Show produced the lowest percentage of strikeouts in his Padres’ career. Only 14% of hitters fell victim to a Show strikeout, 13% less than the number of hitters who were sat down by number three on this list.