Friday night, Justin Verlander threw no-hit baseball for 8.1 innings and simply overmatched the Pittsburgh Pirates in his 1-hit shutout. Yesterday, Brandon Morrow needed 107 pitches to dominate the Mets, allowing only 3 hits and one walk while striking out 8 in his shutout performance. These particular outings were great and some pitchers have been simply dominant all season. For a few guys, it seems that hitters have absolutely no chance. We’ve seen them not only go out and win, but utterly shut down an opponent every trip to the mound. I’ve decided to rank this season’s most dominant pitchers but before I do, I think we should go over how I’m going to do it. Certainly, some statistical measures are important. ERA is noteworthy but WHIP is much more important. You can win games if there are runners on base every inning but you can’t really be “dominant.” For that reason, wins is almost a useless stat in this context. In addition to the stats, I’m going to use some subjective measures to evaluate the pitchers. I’ve watched a lot of games this season I can tell when I guy has overwhelming stuff. Preferably, the guys on my list have at least one pitch that makes everyone watching take note. One other thing I should clarify before beginning, my list only takes into account this season, past success or failure is irrelevant. This makes for a list that really up to date, if a little bit surprising at points. I’ve decided to break this list up into 2 parts, 1-5 today and 6-10 in the next installment. Well, lets begin.
- Justin Verlander, Starter, Detroit Tigers- You might be thinking “Wait, I thought this list was only about 2012, what is Verlander doing at the top.” If so, take a look at JV this year. Verlander was almost unhittable in his last outing against Pittsburgh, just one poorly placed curveball away from becoming the just the 6th pitcher in history with 3 career no-no’s. More than that, Verlander started the game averaging less than 92mph on his fastball but scaled it up and never threw a heater under 96 mph after the 6th inning. That’s the difference between a good pitcher and great pitcher: the great ones throw at 90% effort and can scale it up when they have to. Verlander is a great one, his WHIP is a major league leading .80, his ERA is 2.14, 7th lowest in baseball, his WAR is an amazing 3.0, second among all major leaguers, not just pitchers. Also, he gives up the fewest hits per 9 of any starter and both his curve and fastball can be that awe inspiring pitch I’m looking for. He’s number 1 on the dominance list without a doubt. [click to continue…]
Sorry for the delay in my article, last Monday was my birthday and I worked 12 hours, Tuesday I decided to celebrate my birthday and drive 12 and a half hours to San Francisco see some friends. The good news, after seeing the Giants beat the Cardinals 7-5 on Thursday I have a topic to write about. Which league has the better style of play, the NL or the AL?
There is only one major difference between the two leagues but many smaller differences in the style of play are derived from this one difference. The designated hitter came to be in 1973 when the AL decided to allow an extra position player to hit in place of the pitcher due to the lack of production from the pitchers in the lineup. The DH has since become a staple in collegiate and younger leagues, but the NL has stayed away from the change and this has led baseball purests to make the claim that the NL is the better baseball. [click to continue…]
The Vassar College Brewers didn’t have a pinch-hit hit this past year. We were just 0 for 5, but for my career our Division 3 program is now 0 for 11 and many of the at bats, the hitter has looked overmatched. I maintain that the hardest thing to do in any sport ever is hit a baseball after sitting there for two hours watching what at times can be a boring game. Guys come in off the bench, cold, having not seen a live pitch all day and are expected to produce in a clutch situation. The result can be a strikeout more often than otherwise. Truth be told, I really have no idea how effective pinch hitters are in the Majors and I’d like to know. So with that in mind, next time you’re watching a National League game and the manager pinch hits that left handed batter off the bench for the tiring starting pitcher, consider this:
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Somehow, I have stumbled into the greatest thing that could happen to a sports fan. My favorite player, one Andrew Eugene Pettitte, a man who quietly retired almost 2 years ago and has long since been forgotten, has come out of retirement and takes the mound today for the first time since October 2010. I couldn’t be more thrilled. I couldn’t be more shocked at my good fortune. This is awesome.
Ok, here’s my plan. Today is Mother’s Day so I spent the morning and most of the afternoon at “brunch” (is it still brunch if it takes 4 hours and we don’t get home until 3?) but, I had the foresight to record the game and I’m going to watch it now. I worked very hard to know nothing about this game so I’m starting from scratch here. I’m going to do sort of a running diary in bullet form of the top halves of innings. I’m going to fast forward through the Yankees hitting and just focus on Pettitte. I could not be more excited. Here we go: [click to continue…]
Just last week, Atlanta Braves pitcher Tim Hudson was making his second start back from back surgery and with runners on first and third, he pulled the old fake to third throw to first play. This time it worked. Michael Cuddyer was caught off first base and Hudson took a moment, surprised that the play had worked, before delivering the ball to second baseman Dan Uggla who then couldn’t get Cuddyer at first and everything was exactly as it had been before. It’s one of those plays in a game that doesn’t show up in the box score and is quickly forgotten about; going unmentioned in post-game interviews. But, the fake to third, throw to first move is on the verge of being thrown out of the game by the MLB Rules Committee. I can’t stand it and am not happy about this potential change in the game. [click to continue…]
Baseball is a game of consistency. Over the course of a grueling 162 game season, good players prove that they are good, bad players show that they are bad and teams do the same. Occasionally, you’ll have a player like Adam Dunn have an uncharacteristically terrible year like he did in 2011 or someone come from no where to have a great season but for the most part, Albert Pujols will get to his normal numbers by season’s end, despite any sort of slow start. Often times, guys like Albert will get just as hot in June as they are cold now and by September, all will be right with the world. The same principle applies for the Baltimore Orioles. Frankly, they are the 5th best team in an excellent division and even though they have been playing great so far, everything will normalize over the course of the year and the O’s will end up at the bottom of the standings just as everyone predicted. [click to continue…]
Note: I started writing this article on Sunday night but had to sleep before finishing it as I had work the next morning. Then after eleven hours running around a restaurant all day I ate dinner and went to bed so for the sake of me let’s pretend that this post came out yesterday. So yesterday in the article means Sunday.
p.s. I’m watching Tony Lucca and Adam Levine sing yesterday as I’m writing this.
Last week Funny man Cousin Sal tweeted this. “Normally I take great pleasure in seeing a Yankee all-star go down to injury. That’s all – just thought I’d let you know.” Now personally I think that Rivera going down to injury is a horrible thing, he’s is one of the greatest pitchers of our generation and a first ballot hall of famer, and I never want to see someone possibly end their career tearing their ACL shagging fly balls. I do however fully understand why Cousin Sal would feel this way and post this tweet. Yesterday, I was dismayed to see that Los Angeles Angel Albert Pujols broke the longest homerless streak in his career. Only just this week many people felt joy from Amare Stoudemire’s cut hand, Joakim Noah and Josh Smith’s injuries, as well as the Red Sox getting swept by the Orioles. It does not really make sense why people would enjoy other people’s injuries or why I would be disappointed in someone else’s success in a game where my team didn’t play, in the middle of the regular season, on a day where my team won easily. But, these things do affect happiness and miniscule things like this affect people across the country and world many times over. [click to continue…]
Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper has made quite a name for himself since the time he was 16. I remember seeing the copy of the Sports Illustrated in my mailbox that claimed this young kid from Arizona was baseball’s LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Muhamad Ali, and Usain Bolt all wrapped into one. He’s a player so talented that despite his general arrogance, ridiculous haircut and swagger that annoys those within his organization sometimes, he is impossible to ignore. I’ve discussed Harper at length with my teammates and the general consensus is that he’s a bit of a self-centered jerk who has some growing up to do, but should be really really good. Well, Cole Hamels is trying to make him grow up a little quicker.
Link to the video.
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The guy that wrote “Tell it to My Heart” and a few other pop songs just decided to sell his prolific baseball memorabilia collection. Seth Swirsky, who calls himself a “manic expressive,” decided to sell his entire collection whose most noteworthy item was the ball that squirked through Buckner’s legs those 25 years ago (I know squirked is not a word, but it seems like the best verb for the occasion). The winning bidder in the interesting auction preferred to stay anonymous, but the contents of the rest of Swirsky’s collection represent some of the more entertaining and historic moments in the history of the game.
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This sucks. There’s very simply no other way to put it. One of the more unique and exciting experiences I’ve had in my entire life was a few years ago in the old Yankee Stadium. I had the privilege of hearing Enter Sandman come across the PA system and watching Mariano Rivera jog into an important night game against the Boston Red Sox. Its chilling. Its awe inspiring. Its awesome. I’m absolutely devastated that no one will have the opportunity to watch the best relief pitcher of all time again this season, and maybe ever.
If somehow you didn’t hear, Mo tore his ACL shagging flies in the outfield in Kansas City before last night’s loss to the Royals. At 42, he is very likely out for the season and, because he hinted that this would be his last year, he might be done all together. This type of stupid freak injury couldn’t have happened to a nicer, better, more competitive, less deserving guy. I met Mariano about 10 years ago and though I was young and it was a long time ago, the impression he made has stuck with me. He seemed to truly love what he was doing. He appreciated the respect and admiration he received. And he couldn’t have been kinder or more humble about it. Universally, Mariano is a respected athlete. [click to continue…]
