Kevin Brown (right-handed pitcher)

Did You Know?

• Brown attended Wilkinson County High School in Irwinton, Georgia, and was a student and a letterman in football, baseball, and tennis.
• He played three years of college baseball at Georgia Tech for their baseball team.
• Since retiring, Brown has been involved in multiple handgun-related incidents, including holding two suspected mail thieves at gunpoint until police arrived in June 2018.

Professional career

Kevin Brown was taken by the Texas Rangers with the fourth overall pick in the first round of the 1986 MLB draft. He eventually settled into the number two spot in the Rangers' rotation, working behind the legendary Nolan Ryan. In 1989, he went 12-9 with a 3.35 ERA and 104 strikeouts, and the following year he put up a 12-10 record with a 3.60 ERA and 88 strikeouts. By the time he was fully established, Brown posted a 21-11 season with 173 strikeouts and a 3.32 ERA, tying for the league lead in wins and becoming the first Ranger to win 20 games since Ferguson Jenkins.

After the strike settlement, he became a free agent and signed a one-year deal with the Baltimore Orioles, where he went 10-9 with a 3.60 ERA and 117 strikeouts. He hit free agency again and landed a three-year, $12.9 million contract with the Florida Marlins. In his first Marlins season, Brown went 17-11 with 159 strikeouts and led the majors with a 1.89 ERA, finishing second in Cy Young Award voting. The next year, he threw a one-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his first start and then no-hit the San Francisco Giants on June 10, 1997.

The only Giants baserunner reached on a hit-by-pitch with two outs and two strikes in the eighth inning. During the 1997 NLCS, Brown battled the flu to pitch a complete game in Game Six, beating the Atlanta Braves to send the Marlins to the World Series. He lost both of his starts against the Cleveland Indians in the Fall Classic. After the Marlins broke up their championship roster, Brown was traded to the San Diego Padres for Derrek Lee and prospects.

In his lone season with San Diego, he posted an 18-7 record, a career-high 257 strikeouts, and a 2.38 ERA, finishing third in Cy Young voting. In the NLDS against the Houston Astros, the Padres won both of his starts by 2-1 scores. In Game 1, opposing Randy Johnson, Brown threw eight scoreless innings and struck out 16 Astros, a career high and the second-highest total in MLB playoff history at the time, behind only Bob Gibson's 17-strikeout game in the 1968 World Series.

He helped the Padres reach the World Series by tossing a three-hit shutout against the Braves in the NLCS, though he did blow a save in Game 5 during a rare relief appearance. Brown was the losing pitcher in Game Four as the New York Yankees swept the Padres in the 1998 World Series.

Mitchell Report

Kevin Brown was among the Los Angeles Dodgers players named in the Mitchell Report regarding steroid use. The report includes allegations from Kirk Radomski, who claimed he sold Brown human growth hormone and Deca-Durabolin over two or three years starting in either 2000 or 2001. Radomski stated that Paul Lo Duca introduced him to Brown. An Express Mail receipt addressed to Brown, dated June 7, 2004, supported these claims.

The report also references notes from a 2003 Dodgers executive meeting where Brown's medication was questioned, with a note reading "Steroids speculated by GM." Brown refused to meet with Mitchell's investigators. Bill Plaschke wrote that by 2003, it was obvious to him and to Dodger management that Brown was probably on steroids, and they would discuss it while watching players' bulging bodies during batting practice, but the players admitted nothing. Plaschke also noted that Brown's temper tantrums may have been "roid rage."

Pitching assessment

Kevin Brown built his reputation on a rare combination of power and precision. His signature offering was a sinking fastball that sat between 91 and 96 miles per hour, featuring heavy downward tail that he could place on either side of the plate. Hitters typically beat it into the dirt or swung through it entirely. He backed that up with a sharp slider in the high 80s and a reliable split-fingered fastball he saved for lefties or to change a batter’s eye. Over his career, Brown collected 211 wins and posted a 127 ERA+, meaning he was 27 percent better than the league average. He is one of only seven pitchers ever to win between 200 and 220 games while posting an ERA+ between 120 and 135. Of that group, Stan Coveleski, John Smoltz, Don Drysdale, and Hal Newhouser are in the Hall of Fame. The three excluded are Curt Schilling, Black Sox figure Eddie Cicotte, and Brown himself.