Phil Niekro. (1982). $86

Knuckleball Nation – Career Highlights: https://youtu.be/eZKWxn1zR9o

Philip Henry Niekro (Born in Blaine, OH on April 1, 1939 – December 26, 2020), nicknamed “Knucksie”, was an American baseball pitcher who played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball, 20 of them with the Milwaukee / Atlanta Braves. Niekro’s 318 career victories are the most by a knuckleballer and rank 16th on MLB’s all-time wins list. He won the National League Gold Glove Award five times, was selected to five All-Star teams, and led the league in victories twice and earned run average once. He was a key contributor to the Braves winning their only two division titles before 1991. Niekro was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997. Niekro and his younger brother Joe amassed 539 wins between them, the most combined wins by brothers in baseball history. Phil’s 121 career victories after the age of 40 is a major league record. His longevity is attributed to his knuckleball, which is a difficult pitch to master but is easy on the arm and often baffles hitters due to its unpredictable trajectory. Niekro remains the last MLB pitcher to win and lose 20 games in the same season. With the 1979 Braves, he was 21–20. It was his third and final 20-win season and his second and final 20-loss season. That season, Phil and Joe Niekro were NL co-leaders in wins.

Shohei Ohtani. (2018 RC). $150

Shohei Ohtani (born July 5, 1994), nicknamed “Shotime”, is a Japanese (from Oshu City, Japan) professional baseball pitcher, designated hitter and outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball’s (NPB) Pacific League. In 2017, he played in 65 games, hitting .332 with 8 homers and 31 RBIs while posting a 3–2 record, a 3.20 ERA, and 29 strikeouts as a pitcher. In September, it was revealed that Ohtani would ask to be posted at the end of the season in order to play in Major League Baseball in 2018. However, before that could happen, he had surgery on his right ankle in early October. The injury had originally occurred in the 2016 Japan Series, and had cost him a chance to play in the 2017 World Baseball Classic in addition to restricting his playing time during the season. On November 21, 2017, MLB and NPB came to a posting agreement for Ohtani. Because he was under 25 years old, Ohtani was subjected to international signing rules. This capped his bonus at $3.557 million and limited him to a rookie salary scale, while the signing team also had to pay a $20 million posting fee to the Fighters. Ohtani narrowed his finalists to seven teams, signing with the Angels for a $2.315 million bonus. On December 8, 2017, Ohtani agreed to a deal with the Los Angeles Angels. The deal was finalized the next day. On December 13, it was revealed that Ohtani was diagnosed with a first-degree UCL sprain in his right elbow. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection to treat the injury. Prior to the start of the season, the Angels announced that they would continue to use Ohtani as both a hitter and a pitcher. Ohtani started as the designated hitter on Opening Day, March 29, against the Oakland Athletics, singling in his first at bat. On April 1, he made his pitching debut, striking out six batters in six innings while allowing three runs, to pick up his first MLB win. On April 3, Ohtani hit his first MLB home run, a 397-foot three-run homer against Josh Tomlin. On April 6, he hit his third home run in three days, becoming the first Angels rookie to do so. In only his second start on the mound on April 8, Ohtani took a perfect game through 6⅓ innings before allowing a hit. Overall, Ohtani pitched seven scoreless innings while striking out 12. Making his third start pitching on April 18 against the Boston Red Sox, Ohtani exited after two innings due to a blister on his right middle finger. On June 7, Ohtani left the game after a blister on the same finger. The next day, he was placed on the disabled list for the first time in his MLB career due to a Grade 2 UCL sprain in his right elbow. He received platelet-rich plasma and stem-cell injections to treat the injury. Ohtani was activated from the disabled list as a hitter on July 2, and went 0-for-4 against the Seattle Mariners. On August 3, Ohtani hit two home runs against the Cleveland Indians, marking his first career multiple-home run game and his first two home runs in a road game. After Ohtani had not pitched for 11 weeks, Angels manager Mike Scioscia announced that Ohtani would start the game against the Houston Astros on September 2. On September 7, Ohtani broke the MLB home run record by a Japanese rookie when he hit his 19th home run for the season. Ohtani ended his first major league season with a batting average of .285, a .361 on-base-percentage, 22 home runs, 61 RBIs, and 10 stolen bases. In 10 starts on the mound, he notched a 4–2 record with a 3.31 ERA, 1.16 walks plus hits per inning pitched (WHIP) and 63 strikeouts. His .564 slugging percentage ranked seventh overall among MLB players with at least 350 plate appearances for this season. He became the second-fastest Angels rookie to reach 20 home runs, and he joined Babe Ruth as the only MLB players with 10 pitching appearances and 20 homers in a season. He also won the American League Rookie of the Month award twice; in April and in September. On September 3, 2018, ESPN announced that doctors recommended that Ohtani undergo Tommy John surgery, after an MRI showed new damage to his UCL. The Angels announced on September 25 that Ohtani had agreed to the procedure, which would keep him off the mound until 2020. On October 1, Angels general manager Billy Eppler announced that Ohtani underwent successful Tommy John surgery. On November 12, he was named the American League Rookie of the Year. On May 7, 2019, Ohtani played in his first game with the Angels since undergoing Tommy John surgery, batting as a designated hitter against the Detroit Tigers. In a June 13 game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Ohtani became the first Japanese-born player to hit for the cycle in MLB history. On September 12, Ohtani’s 2019 season prematurely ended after it was revealed that he needed surgery to repair a bipartite patella. He finished the season batting .286/.343/.505 with 18 home runs, 62 RBIs, and 12 stolen bases in 106 games. The 2020 MLB season did not start until July 24 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On July 24, 2020, Ohtani was the first ever automatic player on second base in an official MLB game at the start of the 10th inning as part of one of the new 2020 MLB season rules in a game against the Oakland Athletics. He was thrown out in a rundown. On July 26, 2020, Ohtani returned to the mound against the Oakland Athletics, making his first pitching appearance since September 2018. He allowed 5 runs and was removed from the mound without recording an out, starting his season with a loss and an infinite ERA. After his second start of the season against the Houston Astros, Ohtani began to experience discomfort in his right arm, and it was eventually revealed that he had a flexor strain in his right elbow after undergoing an MRI. Angels manager Joe Maddon later stated that Ohtani would not pitch for the rest of the season. On the offensive side, Ohtani finished the season batting .190/.291/.366 with 7 home runs, 24 RBIs, and 7 stolen bases in 43 games. The culmination of experiencing injuries in his 2019 and 2020 campaigns led to Ohtani describing feeling “frustrated” and “useless.” He went on to say that while his 2019 had been disappointing, his 2020 had been “more like pathetic,” because he could not pitch or hit the way he wanted to. Ohtani said, “[Until 2019], I could more or less do the things I wanted to do. I’d pretty much never experienced the feeling of wanting to do something but being completely unable to do it.” After the results of the 2019 and 2020 seasons, Ohtani spent the offseason overhauling himself. He adjusted his diet based on blood-sample analysis and started squatting heavy again, focusing on strengthening his lower half and bulking up to 225 pounds. He threw bullpen sessions earlier than usual and took batting practice against live pitching, an offseason first for him. Ohtani also embraced data and technology to optimize his training and recovery by visiting Driveline Baseball, a popular player-development destination for underperforming pitchers, where he also tinkered with a changeup. Furthermore, in spring training, the Angels general manager Perry Minasian, manager Joe Maddon, and Ohtani agreed to allow Ohtani to play without limitations or restrictions and drop the “Ohtani Rules”, a plan the Angels mirrored from Ohtani’s schedule in Japan and had implemented since his 2018 rookie season that restricted his usage to a schedule of pitching once a week and hitting only three to four times between starts. Free of the “Ohtani Rules”, Ohtani would be in charge of his own daily diagnostics with Maddon to determine his pitching and hitting schedule. On February 8, Ohtani agreed to a two-year $8.5 million contract with the Angels, avoiding arbitration. In his first pitching start against the Chicago White Sox on Sunday Night Baseball on April 4, 2021, he threw 4⅔ innings, allowing one earned run and two unearned runs. During that start, he struck out seven batters. Additionally, Ohtani batted 2nd in the lineup. He went 1 for 3, hitting a 450-foot solo home run on the first pitch he faced. After skipping a scheduled start against the Toronto Blue Jays due to a blister, Ohtani made his second start of the season on April 20, against the Texas Rangers. Under a 75-pitch limit, he threw 4 scoreless innings, striking out 7 batters and allowing 1 hit. In his third start on April 26, once again against the Texas Rangers, Ohtani collected his first win of the season. He pitched 5 innings, allowing 4 runs in the first inning and striking out 9. Offensively, he went 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs. Ohtani also became the first player in nearly 100 years to start a game on the mound while also entering the day leading the Majors in home runs. Such an event had not occurred since Babe Ruth took the mound as starting pitcher for the Yankees on June 13, 1921, leading the AL with 19 home runs. On June 18, Ohtani was elected to the 2021 Home Run Derby, becoming both the first pitcher and the first Japanese player to do so. Three days later, Ohtani was named AL Player of the Week for the third time in his career after hitting six home runs and picking up a win as starting pitcher. Two weeks later, he was again named AL Player of the Week for the fourth in his career after hitting six home runs and recording a 1.543 OPS with eight RBIs in six games to help the Angels go 5–1. On June 23, he made history yet again as he hit for himself as a pitcher and the second batter in the lineup against the Giants with designated hitter rules in place, making it the first time in MLB history that an American League team chose not to use a DH while a National League team utilized one. For the first time in his career, Ohtani was named the American League Player of the Month for June, as he hit .309/.423/.889 with 13 home runs and a 1.312 OPS as a hitter and earned two wins as a pitcher. On July 3 against the Baltimore Orioles, Ohtani became the first player in American League history to reach 30 home runs and 10 stolen bases in the first 81 games of the season. On July 4, Ohtani made history by becoming the first player to be selected as an All-Star as both a position player and a pitcher. He had already been selected as the starting designated hitter by the fans for the 2021 All-Star Game on July while being voted by the players as one of five starting pitchers to make the American League roster on July 4. On July 7, Ohtani hit his 32nd home run of the year, a solo shot off of Boston Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodríguez, passing Hideki Matsui’s mark in 2004, for the most home runs hit during a season by a Japanese-born player in MLB. Additionally, Ohtani won the Best Major League Baseball Player ESPY Award, becoming the first Japanese player to win the award. Ohtani participated in the Home Run Derby on July 12. In the first round, he hit 22 home runs, tying him with opponent Juan Soto. A tiebreaker round saw Ohtani and Soto tied again at 28 home runs. While Soto won the round after a second tiebreaker, Ohtani set a record for the most home runs in the Derby of at least 500 feet with six. For participating in the Derby, Ohtani received $150,000, which he proceeded to donate his earnings to approximately 30 Angels support employees to thank them for their work, which included trainers, clubhouse workers and media relations staffers. Ohtani had decided that he was going to use the money in this manner no matter what his Derby outcome was. On July 13, Ohtani made All-Star Game history again as the starting pitcher and leadoff designated hitter for the American League. After pitching a perfect first inning, he also became the first player in major league history to compete in the Home Run Derby and earn a win as the starting pitcher in the All-Star Game. Additionally, he became the first leadoff man to throw a 100-mph fastball in the All-Star Game. On July 26, in his 15th pitching start of the season against the Colorado Rockies, Ohtani became the first pitcher in league history to register 100 strikeouts while holding a major-league-leading 35 home runs before the end of July, as no pitcher had ever recorded triple-digit strikeouts and added more than nine home runs in the same season. Additionally, in the same game, Ohtani became the first pitcher to throw a scoreless top half and record a hit, a RBI, a stolen base and a scored run while playing in an AL ballpark since Luis Tiant did so for the Minnesota Twins on April 26, 1970. Ohtani would finish the month of July as the first player in Major League history to ever have at least 37 home runs and 15 stolen bases before the end of July. And for the second straight month, Ohtani also earned his second American League Player of the Month Award, becoming the first back-to-back Player of the Month Award winner in either league since Chase Headley in August and September 2012, and the first in the AL since Josh Hamilton in 2012. For the month of July, he produced nine home runs, 19 RBIs, 16 walks and a .282/.396/.671 slash line in 23 games at the plate, and a 1.35 ERA with 17 strikeouts and one walk in 20 innings. On August 18, Ohtani pitched a dominant 8 innings against the Detroit Tigers, setting a career high by throwing 90 pitches to record 24 outs in eight innings while also hitting a solo homer for his 40th of the year in the eighth inning to lead the Angels to a 3–1 win. He became the first left-handed batter in Angels history to reach 40 home runs, surpassing lefty Reggie Jackson’s 1982 record of 39. He also became just the fourth AL pitcher to throw at least eight innings and hit a homer in a game since the DH was instituted in 1973, joining Jon Garland in June 2006, Kris Benson in June 2006, and Bobby Witt in June 1997. Ohtani would cap off the month of August by stealing his 20th base in a game on August 28 against the San Diego Padres, becoming the first Japanese-born player and the first player in Angels history to hit 40 home runs and have 20 stolen bases in the same season. He joined Alex Rodriguez in 2007 and Ken Griffey Jr. in 1999 as the 3rd AL player to accomplish this feat before September. And he became the first AL player to reach both of those totals in a season since Curtis Granderson in 2011. On September 21, after hitting his 45th home run of the season, Ohtani became the first player to hit at least 45 homers and steal 20 bases in a season since Alex Rodriguez in 2007. And on September 25, Ohtani joined Willie Mays as the only players with at least 45 home runs, 20 stolen bases and six triples in a season, when he hit two triples in consecutive plate appearances, becoming the first Angels player to do so since Peter Bourjos in April 2011. From September 22 to September 25, Ohtani drew 13 walks in a 4-game span, tying an AL/NL record set by Babe Ruth in 1930, Bryce Harper in 2016, and Yasmani Grandal in 2021. He drew a career-high four walks on September 22 and three walks on September 23, against the Houston Astros, followed by four more walks on September 24 and two walks on September 25 against the Seattle Mariners. His 11 walks drawn in the three game span also tied the MLB record set by Harper in 2016. The Angels announced on September 25 that Ohtani was named as both the team’s Los Angeles Angels Player of the Year of 2021 and the team’s Nick Adenhart Pitcher of the Year Award, as voted by his teammates. On September 26, Ohtani reached the 150-strikeout milestone against the Seattle Mariners and finished the year unbeaten at home, going 6–0 with a 1.95 ERA in 13 starts. Ohtani’s home ERA was the lowest by an Angels starter since Jered Weaver in 2011. He also became the sixth starter in AL or NL history to make at least 13 home starts without a losing decision and an ERA below 2.00 in a season. In the last game of the season against the Seattle Mariners, Ohtani passed teammate Mike Trout’s 45 home runs in a single season to finish with the second-most home runs in a season in Angels history at 46, trailing only Troy Glaus’ 47 home runs in 2000. For the year, Ohtani finished his pitching campaign by making 23 starts on the mound, going 9–2 with a 3.18 ERA, 156 strikeouts, 1.09 WHIP and 44 walks in 130 1/3 innings. On the hitting side, Ohtani finished with an American League-leading 20 intentional walks, which was the most by an AL player since Mike Trout in 2018. Ohtani, who batted .257/.372/.592, including 46 home runs – runner-up for the MLB lead in homers, 100 RBI, 103 runs and 26 steals in 155 games and 639 plate appearances, hit several milestones to close his season, reaching both 100 RBIs and 100 runs for the first time in his career. He also tied for the MLB lead with eight triples to go along with 26 stolen bases. Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to have at least 45 homers, 25 stolen bases, 100 RBIs, 100 runs, and eight triples in a season and the second player in AL history to record at least 45 homers and 25 stolen bases in a season, joining Jose Canseco in 1998. According to Baseball-Reference.com, Ohtani led the league with a wins above replacement (WAR) value of 9.1 and finished third in home runs (46), fourth in slugging percentage (.592), fifth in OPS (.965), first in triples (8), fifth in drawing walks (96), eight in stolen bases (26), second in extra base hits (80), second in intentional walks (20), fifth in OPS+ (158), and first in power-speed number (33.2). Ohtani was unanimously voted the American League Most Valuable Player, becoming the 23rd pitcher and first designated hitter to win the award. For the 2021 ALL-MLB Team, Ohtani is the only player to be named to both teams, first team and second team, in the same season (as a designated hitter and starting pitcher respectively). He became the first pitcher, the first Japanese player and the first Angels player to win the Edgar Martínez Outstanding Designated Hitter Award. Ohtani was also awarded the Silver Slugger Award for being the best offensive player at the designated hitter position in the American League, and was named to Time 100’s list of most influential people of 2021, which culminated to many end-of-the-season-accolades. He was named Baseball Digest Player of the Year and Baseball AmericaMajor League Player of the Year. From his MLB peers he was given Sporting News Player of the Year Award, Players Choice Player of the Year Award, and Players Choice American League Outstanding Player Award. Additionally, Ohtani’s 2021 season was recognized for two Guinness World Records titles: (1) the first MLB player to achieve 100+ innings and record 100+ strikeouts as a pitcher, and 100+ RBIs, hits and runs as a batter in a single season and (2) the first player to start the MLB All-Star Game as a pitcher and a designated hitter. He also became the 16th recipient of the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award, awarded by Commissioner Rob Manfred, who formally recognized Ohtani’s 2021 season as “historically significant” and “unprecedented”, calling it “so special that it was important to recognize the historic achievement that took place in 2021 with an award just about 2021.” Ohtani was offered Japan’s national honor, the People’s Honour Award, by the Prime Minister of Japan in recognition of his accomplishments, but Ohtani rejected it, saying it was “still too early” for such an award.