It’s like he’s solved the equation of pitching, like checkers or tic-tac-toe.
According to baseball reference his ERA+ is now 777. By way of comparison, the best Bob Gibson ever did was 258, in 1968. Sandy Koufax topped out at 190.
All his numbers are stupid. I know he’s only pitched 72 innings, but they’re still stupid. He’s only given up 27 hits. Most Hall of Fame pitchers never at any point in their careers had a 72-inning run like this.
For fun I looked up the 1988 game logs of Orel Hershiser, who of course famously went 59 innings that year without giving up any runs, virtually all of that in September. In his last August start he beat the Expos, allowing only two runs in a complete game, none in the last four innings. Then he went and shut out the Braves, Reds, Braves again, Astros and Giants and pitched ten scoreless against the Padres but the Dodgers lost in the sixteenth inning. If you take his numbers back to 72 innings, which carries us back to his August 24 start against the Mets - that makes it 73 innings actually - he has almost exactly the same ERA but in some ways deGrom is still better; Hershiser allowed more hits and more walks and stuck out far fewer men (he also allowed no home runs at all, though, to deGrom’s four - so, typical for the times those men play in.) The 1988 NL was a very low scoring league, much lower than now.
I mean, deGrom could have one mediocre start and his ERA will balloon all the way to 1, or his arm problems could shut him down. Who knows. It’s a wonder to behold though.
Just saw that Fernando started his ‘81 season with 4 ER in 72 IP as well, in 8 straight complete games no less. But he allowed 60 baserunners to deGrom’s 37.
Also, happy Wander Franco Day, everyone! MLB.tv is doing something smart for once, and making the Rays/Red Sox game their free game of the day. I hope I’ll have time to tune in to watch his debut.
Franco looks… uhhh, REALLY good. Scary good.
Jacob deGrom is some kind of freak. Has any pitcher increased their average fastball velocity year in year out like him? An it’s still improving at age 33:
- 2015: 95 mph
- 2016: 93.4 mph
- 2017: 95.2 mph
- 2018: 96 mph
- 2019: 96.9 mph
- 2020: 98.6 mph
- 2021: 99.2 mph
He was converted from shortstop to pitcher in his senior year in college, so he has less mileage on his arm. That could definitely be a factor. I guess the rest is mechanics? He has the highest slider velocity in the bigs, too. He’s a freak.
Joe Girardi making a fool of himself, first getting the umps to check Max Scherzer for ‘substances’ in the middle of an inning, then seemingly challenging Max to a fight(?!?) and getting tossed.
And Franco belts a homer in his third at bat.
Can he pitch every other day? Lucceshi, who had an ERA under 2 in his last 4 starts, now has torn UCL, and tonight Stroman left in the 2nd with a hip issue.
This is…interesting.
That should make the 2021 Diamondbacks season highlight reel.
Speaking of the Diamondbacks, they will seek to extend their road losing streak on Friday in San Diego. The streak currently stands at 23 consecutive road losses.
Meanwhile in the AL, the Orioles have their own road losing streak, now at 19 straight road losses. They go back on the road tomorrow against the Blue Jays (in Buffalo, of course.)
Fun fact(s): the Diamondbacks’ last road win was on Madison Bumgarner’s 7-inning complete game shutout where he didn’t allow a hit (not to be confused with a no-hitter).
The Orioles’ last road win was on John Means’ no-hitter.
It is fair to say the D-Backs are, shall we say, not good.
Who’[s the worst team in baseball?
By record:
Arizona 21-54
Baltimore 23-50
Texas 26-47
Pittsburgh 26-45
Arizona has actually been quite unlucky this year in terms of runs scored and allowed translating to wins, but it’s hard to see how they will improve. I don’t see a lot of hope for the Orioles either, who actually have two A+ players in John Means and Cedric Mullins and somehow are still awful.
They’ve had a really rough schedule so far, and they’ve gotten back Gallen and Marte - so I’d guess that they’ll let the Rockies overtake them as worst in the West by the end of the season.
At least the the D-Backs and Rockies play each other 19 times during the season, so each team has chances to improve their records.
The O’s, on the other hand, play in a division where each of the other four teams is over .500.
One hell of a crazy game this afternoon with the Nationals vs Phillies. Nats were getting pounded, they’ve roared back with 11 runs the last two innings including a 3-2, 2 out Josh Bell grand slam! 11-9 Nationals, bottom of the 6th now.
It’s actually crazier than your description. The Nats were losing 5-0, then tied it in the fifth. THEN the Phillies went ahead 9-5 on a pinch hit grand slam (Andrew McCutchen) and it was then that the Nats tied it with the Bell grand slam and then went ahead.
After I read the last two posts, I turned to the MLB channel just in time to see the Phillies tie it at 11 in the bottom of the 8th. Now 2 on, 1 out.
I’ve been watching the Euros but now back to the baseball, crazy game and I bet Washington ties this back up