Last week, I wrote about The Curious Case of Carlos Marmol. The Chicago Cubs closer had an unusual season in 2009, ranking among the best relievers in strikeout, hit, and home run rates while finishing with the worst walk and hit by pitch rates.

Marmol's propensity to strike out, walk, and hit batters last year ranked seventh ever and the highest since 2004 among pitchers with 50 or more games. Thanks to Lee Sinins and his Complete Baseball Encyclopedia, here's a list of all the pitchers with at least a 50 percent rate (expressed in decimal terms below).

                              YEAR      %        SO        BB       HBP     BFP       G     
1    Armando Benitez          1999     .542      128       41        0      312       77   
2    Brad Lidge               2004     .523      157       30        6      369       80   
3    Eric Gagne               2003     .523      137       20        3      306       77   
4    Matt Mantei              1999     .521       99       44        5      284       65   
5    Byung-Hyun Kim           2000     .519      111       46        9      320       61   
6    Billy Wagner             1999     .517      124       23        1      286       66   
7    Carlos Marmol            2009     .507       93       65       12      335       79   
8    John Rocker              2000     .506       77       48        2      251       59   
9    Jeff Nelson              2001     .505       88       44        6      273       69   
10   Billy Wagner             1997     .502      106       30        3      277       62   
11   Rob Dibble               1992     .500      110       31        2      286       63

For what it is worth, here are the single-season leaders for ERA qualifiers (defined as the modern-day requirement of 1 IP/team game).

                              YEAR      %        SO        BB       HBP     BFP    
1    Kerry Wood               1998     .471      233       85       11      699   
2    Randy Johnson            2001     .464      372       71       18      994   
3    Randy Johnson            1997     .445      291       77       10      850   
4    Randy Johnson            1991     .441      228      152       12      889   
5    Randy Johnson            1992     .437      241      144       18      922   
6    Kerry Wood               2003     .436      266      100       21      887   
7    Nolan Ryan               1977     .436      341      204        9     1272   
8    Kerry Wood               2001     .431      217       92       10      740   
9    Nolan Ryan               1976     .431      327      183        5     1196   
10   Pedro Martinez           1999     .430      313       37        9      835

Kerry Wood and Randy Johnson comprise the top six and seven of the top ten seasons of all time. Nolan Ryan appears twice and Pedro Martinez, mostly owing to his 37.5 percent strikeout rate (which edges out the Big Unit's K rate in 2001 by less than a tenth of a point), ranks tenth. No pitcher prior to 1976 made the list.

Lastly, here are the career leaders (with a minimum of 2000 IP).

                                 %        SO       BB       HBP     BFP    
1    Randy Johnson              .384     4875     1497      190    17067   
2    Nolan Ryan                 .384     5714     2795      158    22575   
3    Sam McDowell               .361     2453     1312       59    10587   
4    Pedro Martinez             .356     3154      760      141    11394   
5    Sandy Koufax               .340     2396      817       18     9497   
6    Tom Gordon                 .325     1928      977       38     9058   
7    David Cone                 .321     2668     1137      106    12184   
8    Roger Clemens              .317     4672     1580      159    20240   
9    Al Leiter                  .315     1974     1163      117    10334   
10   Bobby Witt                 .306     1955     1375       39    11003

Johnson, Ryan, and Martinez are joined by Sam McDowell, Sandy Koufax, Tom Gordon, David Cone, Roger Clemens, Al Leiter, and Bobby Witt. Johnson's career rate (38.448 percent) tops Ryan's (38.392) by a tiny fraction.

McDowell, who was known as Sudden Sam for his heat, led the American League in strikeouts and walks five times each from 1965-1971. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in May 1966 and the recipient of an outstanding SI article by Pat Jordan in August 1970.

Witt had the highest walk rate (12.5 percent) in the group. A hard-throwing righthander, Witt was drafted out of the University of Oklahoma by the Texas Rangers in the first round with the third overall pick of the 1985 amateur draft. After pitching just 35 innings with an 0-6 record and a 6.43 ERA in Double-A that summer, he earned a spot in the starting rotation the following spring. Witt led the AL in walks (143) and wild pitches (22) in 157.2 innings. He led the league in BB three times and WP twice in his first four seasons in the big leagues. While Bobby never topped the circuit in strikeouts, he whiffed 221 batters in 222 innings when he fashioned a 17-10 record and a 3.36 ERA (118 ERA+) during his best campaign in 1990.

Generally speaking, the pitchers on the lists above possess some of the best stuff in the past half century. A handful became legends while many others never quite lived up to their promise.