Randy Jones
The soft-tossing southpaw who somehow dominated the mid-1970s National League relied on pinpoint control and an almost supernatural ability to induce weak contact. Jones threw his fastball in the low 80s when power pitchers ruled, yet posted a microscopic 2.24 ERA in his Cy Young season of 1975 — nearly a full run better than his career 3.42 mark.
His 20-win campaign that year came with just 103 strikeouts, a testament to his groundball-heavy approach that made him the perfect pitcher for Padres teams that needed innings more than strikeouts. Jones epitomized the crafty lefty archetype, proving that location trumps velocity when executed with surgical precision.
The fact that he managed a 107 career ERA+ while throwing batting practice fastballs speaks to an almost lost art in modern baseball. His peak season ERA+ of 165 shows just how dominant soft-tossing command could be in an era before launch angle became religion.
Career · Hitting
10 seasons| Year | Team | G | AB | HR | RBI | AVG | OPS | OPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | SD | 20 | 48 | 0 | 2 | .167 | .371 | 53 |
| 1974 | SD | 46 | 65 | 0 | 2 | .154 | .348 | 50 |
| 1975 | SD | 40 | 83 | 0 | 4 | .133 | .338 | 48 |
| 1976 | SD | 40 | 103 | 0 | 2 | .058 | .160 | 23 |
| 1977 | SD | 28 | 43 | 0 | 1 | .116 | .295 | 40 |
| 1978 | SD | 38 | 82 | 0 | 4 | .183 | .395 | 56 |
| 1979 | SD | 41 | 86 | 0 | 5 | .174 | .370 | 51 |
| 1980 | SD | 25 | 45 | 0 | 0 | .067 | .173 | 24 |
| 1981 | NYM | 13 | 17 | 0 | 0 | .118 | .235 | 34 |
| 1982 | NYM | 28 | 27 | 0 | 0 | .148 | .381 | 53 |
| Career | 319 | 599 | 0 | 20 | .132 | — | — | |
Career · Pitching
10 seasons| Year | Team | G | IP | W | L | ERA | ERA+ | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | SD | 20 | 139.7 | 7 | 6 | 3.16 | 118 | 77 | 1.189 |
| 1974 | SD | 40 | 208.3 | 8 | 22 | 4.45 | 81 | 124 | 1.416 |
| 1975 | SD | 37 | 285.0 | 20 | 12 | 2.24 | 165 | 103 | 1.046 |
| 1976 | SD | 40 | 315.3 | 22 | 14 | 2.74 | 128 | 93 | 1.027 |
| 1977 | SD | 27 | 147.3 | 6 | 12 | 4.58 | 87 | 44 | 1.419 |
| 1978 | SD | 37 | 253.0 | 13 | 14 | 2.88 | 128 | 71 | 1.292 |
| 1979 | SD | 39 | 263.0 | 11 | 12 | 3.63 | 110 | 112 | 1.221 |
| 1980 | SD | 24 | 154.3 | 5 | 13 | 3.91 | 98 | 53 | 1.257 |
| 1981 | NYM | 13 | 59.3 | 1 | 8 | 4.85 | 74 | 14 | 1.736 |
| 1982 | NYM | 28 | 107.7 | 7 | 10 | 4.60 | 84 | 44 | 1.681 |
| Career | 305 | 1932.9 | 100 | 123 | — | — | 735 | — | |
Matchups, projections, comps — grounded in Lahman, Retrosheet, and Statcast.