List of Major League Baseball annual strikeout leaders

A pitcher earns a strikeout when he puts out the batter he is facing by throwing a ball through the strike zone, "defined as that area over homeplate (sic) the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the kneecap",[2] which is not put in play.

[8] Three players have won seven strikeout championships: Dazzy Vance, who leads the National League;[9] Bob Feller;[10] and Lefty Grove.

[11] Grover Cleveland Alexander and Rube Waddell led their league six times,[12][13] and five-time winners include Steve Carlton,[14] Roger Clemens,[15] Sam McDowell,[16] Christy Mathewson,[17] Amos Rusie,[18] and Tom Seaver.

Among recognized major leagues, Matt Kilroy accumulated the highest single-season total, with 513 strikeouts for the Baltimore Orioles of the American Association in 1886.

[7] The largest margin of victory for a champion is 156 strikeouts, achieved in 1883 when Tim Keefe of the American Association's New York Metropolitans posted 359 against Bobby Mathews' 203.

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Walter Johnson holds the record with 12 different seasons that he was a strikeout leader, including 8 consecutive from 1912 through 1919. Johnson was one of the five charter members of the Baseball Hall of Fame . [ 1 ]
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Tommy Bond won the triple crown in 1877, leading the National League in wins , strikeouts, and earned run average .
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Grover Cleveland Alexander led the National League in strikeouts six times in nine seasons.
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Amos Rusie led the National League in strikeouts a total of five times with two different teams.
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From 1903 to 1908, Christy Mathewson led the National League in strikeouts in five of six years.
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Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax led the National League in strikeouts four times before retiring at the age of 30.
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Aaron Harang defeated Jake Peavy for the strikeout title in 2006 by one strikeout.
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Jake Peavy's 240 strikeouts in 2007 led all National League pitchers. Peavy also won the pitching triple crown the same year. [ 32 ]
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Tim Lincecum led the National League in strikeouts in 2008, 2009, and 2010.
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Rube Waddell led the American League in strikeouts for six consecutive seasons (1902–1907).
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In 1908 and 1911, Ed Walsh was the American League strikeout champion.
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In 1959 and 1960, Jim Bunning led the American League in strikeouts; he finished in second place four times.
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Nolan Ryan has 5,714 career strikeouts, the most in Major League history. His 11 seasons as a strikeout leader – second only to the 12 of Walter Johnson – includes nine seasons, between 1972 and 1990, as the American League strikeout leader. [ 180 ]
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Three-time strikeout champion Johan Santana won the American League's last pitching triple crown in 2006. [ 181 ]
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Scott Kazmir's 239 strikeouts led the American League in 2007.
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A. J. Burnett won the American League strikeout title in 2008.
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Justin Verlander also led the American League in wins and innings pitched in 2009. [ 182 ]
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Matt Kilroy's 513 strikeouts in 1886 is the most in a single season by a pitcher among modern recognized major leagues.