"During a 10-year span from 2000-09, Javier Vazquez averaged over a dozen wins, 216 innings and 200 strikeouts. He didn't come close to matching those number as a member of the Yankees last season, but Vazquez remains in elite company when it comes to consistency.

A season of double-digit wins with at least 157 innings and 120 strikeouts would be Vazquez's 12th in a row. Only 12 modern era pitchers — Steve Carlton (18), Gaylord Perry and Don Sutton (15), Bob Gibson, Phil Niekro and Greg Maddux (14), Tom Seaver (13), and Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Don Drysdale, Mickey Lolich and Mike Mussina (12) — have achieved those thresholds in that many consecutive seasons.

Sunday, Vazquez will take another step toward becoming the 13th member of that group. He'll make his Florida Marlins debut in the 1:05 p.m. exhibition opener against the University of Miami at Roger Dean Stadium. Vazquez, like the rest of his fellow starters in the coming days, will be limited to two innings.

"It's always different when you come to a new team," said Vazquez, who signed a one-year, $7 million free-agent deal. "You want to start with your right foot forward, but I understand it's the first game and the reason we're pitching is to get ready for the season."

Of the aforementioned 12 pitchers, Carlton (1967-84), Maddux (1988-01) and Mussina (1995-06) are the only ones whose streak encompassed any seasons this side of 1980. How hard is it to consistently reach those numbers nowadays? C.C. Sabathia (10), Johan Santana and John Lackey (8), and Dan Haren (6) are the lone pitchers who have active runs of at least six 10-win, 120-strikeout, 150-inning seasons."