Strikeout-to-walk ratio is a common statistic used in measuring pitchers (in 2014: Phil Hughes good; Edinson Volquez not so good). But what about strikeout-to-hit ratios? Which pitchers strike out the most batters relative to the number of hits they gave up in a season?

Jon Becker (@mlbrandomfandom) of the Ball Eight research department put together a list of the best K/H ratios in modern baseball history: Pitchers have put up a K/H ratio of of 1.5/1 or better just 56 times in the last 114 years. (In other words, they recorded 50 percent more strikeouts – or more – in a season than they gave up hits.)

The research showed the feat should simply be called “The Big Unit.”

The table below – sorted by number of strikeouts – demonstrates just how dominant Randy Johnson was, both at his peak and throughout his career. Johnson recorded 12 of the 56 Big Units in history, including every year from 1991-95 and 1997-2002 – or every year between 1991 and 2002 except 1996.

His best Big Unit Year came in 2001, when he had a 2.06 K/H ratio – or more than double the number of strikeouts to hits. His next best was 1997, when he had a 1.97 K/H ratio.

Here are the top Big Unit seasons in modern baseball history:

• Pedro Martinez, 2000, 2.22 K/H
• Randy Johnson, 2001, 2.06
• Kerry Wood, 1998, 1.99
• Nolan Ryan, 1972, 1.98
• Randy Johnson, 1997, 1.97
• Pedro Martinez, 1999, 1.96
• Pedro Martinez, 1997, 1.93

Ryan recorded 10 Big Units, but tended to give up more hits than Johnson and Martinez, who record four Big Units of his own. Clayton Kershaw has two so far, and – interestingly – Roger Clemens recorded only one in his career.

Here are all 56 Big Units, including five in the last two seasons (Yu Darvish, Max Scherzer and Jose Fernandez, 2013; and Kershaw and Chris Sale, 2014):