A New Year? OK...

Evidently, Greg Maddux made 236 starts in which he didn't walk a single batter. It's the all-time record, way ahead of the second place fellow (Robin Roberts with 167).  Pete Alexander (168), Christy Mathewson (167), and David Wells (149) are the next three names on the list.  Maddux made 740 starts in his career, which means he didn't walk anyone in 31.9% of them.

Naturally, I wondered (for approximately two seconds) which Blue Jays pitcher would place highest (during their careers as a Blue Jay.) Approximately two seconds, because it's obviously going to be Roy Halladay. 

Toronto starters have had 925 walk free outings in 7229 games, a percentage of 12.8%,. It's nowhere near Maddux, but I'm guessing it's fairly average. Maddux was extremely not average, but there are actually a few Blue Jays who can top Maddux's percentage of walk-free starts, although none of those fellows even made 100 starts for Toronto. But it's nice to know Joe Johnson had something going for him. Just two of the Toronto starters who can top Maddux's percentage even make the franchise top 50 in starts, and you only need 40 starts to clear that bar. Ross Stripling, with 15 walk-free outings in 45 starts (33.3%) edges Josh Towers (29 of 89, 32.6%) for best percentage, but Kevin Gausman could go by both of them this season.

But yes, Halladay tops the list with 75 walk-free outings in 287 Toronto starts, a pretty fair 26.1% - he's followed by Jimmy Key, naturally (62 in 250, 24.8%.) Jim Clancy, Towers, and Wells fill out the top 5. But the man I want to single out is Erik Hanson, who made 45 starts for Toronto and walked someone in 44 of them. Noted control artist Al Leiter can beat that. So can Luke Prokopec, Jose Nunez, and Luis Andujar.

There was a time when I thought Erik Hanson was a good idea. Never let me forget.