Jamie Mottram wonders if Erik Bedard can reach 300 strikeouts:

With nine starts left, he'd have to average 11 per outing to get there. Not impossible, but improbable. What's likely is he'll finish in the 275 range, which is still a big deal, as evidenced by the group of dominators with 275-strikeout seasons dating back to 1987:

Randy Johnson (nine times), Curt Schilling (four times), Pedro Martinez (three times), Roger Clemens (twice), Nolan Ryan (once, but six times career) and John Smoltz (once)

To reach 300 strikeouts, a pitcher must pitch a lot of innings and maintain a high strikeout rate. The fewest innings pitched for someone with 300 strikeouts belongs to Pedro Martinez, who accomplished the feat in 213 1/3 innings in 1999, averaging 13.2 K per 9. At his current rate of 11.1 K per 9, Bedard needs 243 1/3 innings pitched to get there, another 81 innings. In other words, he'll need to make every start and pitch a complete game. He's on a pace for 214 innings.

The lowest K per 9 to strikeout 300 batters (since 1900) goes to Mickey Lolich, who struck out 7.37 batters per 9 in 1971 and pitched 376 innings. We'll be lucky to see anyone get to 250 innings in the future.

Let's look at in another way. If Bedard stays on pace, he'll face another 251 batters this season. His probability of striking out a batter this season is .305 (652 batters faced, 199 strikeouts). That means the odds of him striking out at least 101 more batters is .00066. It's a real long shot.