Rockies top prospect has unhinged fantasy involving Mariners legend Randy Johnson

Charlie Condon is a madman. He also knows ball. You just have to hand it to a modern hitter who not only wishes he could have faced Randy Johnson, but then goes on to explain why in such a way that checks all the boxes.

It's all there in an exchange between Condon and FanSided's Adam Weinrib at the Futures Game during the weekend in Philadelphia. Weinrib asked the Colorado Rockies' No. 2 prospect which pitcher he would face if he could go back in time, and his "dumb answer" was none other than "The Big Unit."

"This is a dumb answer because it wouldn't be fun, but Randy Johnson," Condon said. "Just because I think that angle and that velocity is just something you don't really see that often, so I'd want to see what that's all about."

For the record, the 23-year-old Condon was six years old when Johnson threw his last pitch for the San Francisco Giants in 2009. He wasn't even born when Johnson won his fifth Cy Young Award — one for the Seattle Mariners and four with the Arizona Diamondbacks — in 2002.

So, he's clearly seem some highlights, and they clearly left an impression.

Mariners fans should appreciate the boldness of Charlie Condon's Randy Johnson fantasy

If simply perusing Johnson's Baseball Reference page doesn't do the trick, then watching old highlights really is the best way to understand that he's one-of-one among all-time pitchers.

He's one of only 10 pitchers who have ever stood at 6-foot-10 or taller, and one of only four lefties among that group. And then you have the sidearm delivery, the 100 mph fastball and the slider that racked up 4,875 strikeouts across a 22-year career.

"What was the worst thing that Michael Jordan could do to you?" Jeff Huson, a former major league infielder, once told Tim Kurkjian for a 2009 article on what it was like to face Johnson. "He can go dunk on you. He could embarrass you. What's the worst thing Randy Johnson can do to you? He can kill you."

Maybe Condon would have had a better chance than most. He's a former Golden Spikes winner who's having a breakout season (.998 OPS, 20 HR) for Triple-A Albuquerque. He's also a right-handed hitter, and they had a lifetime .300 average against Johnson.

[Chatter in earpiece] Wait, no. Sorry. That's a .300 on-base percentage against Johnson. He held righties to a .224 average, the fifth-lowest of all-time for lefties who faced at least 5,000 righty batters. He also had the most left-on-right strikeouts of anyone, natch.

So yeah, Condon likely would have been cooked in an at-bat against Johnson. But at least he knows what he would have been up against, so you have to admire the gumption. And since he knows it wouldn't have been any fun, the humility as well.

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