Wild about the whiff

The more I started reading about baseball stats, the more I’ve come to realize the value of strikeouts for pitchers. I guess I’m a slow learner, or liked to believe that those who relied on guts and guile were just as good. (And a few are, especially if they keep the ball on the ground more than 55% of the time.)

Yesterday, I took a simplistic look at the K. This is what I found, which sort of blew me away.

Last season, 23 of the top 24 pitchers in strikeouts had an ERA under 4.00. Only Boston’s Matsuzaka (4.40) failed to achieve that level. Of the 29 pitchers with at least 160 Ks, only Matsuzaka, Baltimore’s Daniel Cabrera (5.55) and Colorado’s Jeff Francis (4.22) topped 4.00.

In 2006, the trend wasn’t as strong, although 16 of the top 17 strikeout men had an ERA of 4.20 or lower. Only the ChiSox’s Javier Vasquez (4.84) was above it.

In 2005, Vasquez (this time in Arizona) again spoiled things. His 4.42 ERA was the only one among the top 25 strikeout pitchers to top 4.00.

In 2004, only Detroit’s Jeremy Bonderman (4.89) and Toronto’s Ted Lilly (4.06) topped 4.00 among the top 21.

Guess what happened in 2003? This time 10 of the top 11 were under 3.41 ERA (only NYY’s Roger Clemens was above at 3.91). None of the top 24 had an ERA above 4.23, and 23 were 4.13 or lower.

In 2002, the top 9 were 3.66 or lower and 16 of the top 20 were under 4.00.

You get the picture. I know ERA isn’t the best measure of a pitcher, but those numbers were overwhelming. No wonder Dave Dombrowski stocks up on those power arms.