With the All-Star Break, which marks the just-past-halfway point in the season, starting tomorrow, here are some updates on some of the players and situations I addressed during the preseason and the first half.
Monthly Archive for July, 2010
“You are mine now! You belong to me!”Cliff Lee is in the middle of what may turn out to be one of the most amazing seasons in history. No, he is not as utterly dominating as Pedro Martinez was in 1999 and 2000. He is not on pace to strike out 300 or to post an ERA under two. However, the combination of power and control he has showcased so far this year is among the best we have ever seen.
Despite missing April with an injury, Lee pitched 95⅔ innings in the first half of the season. He whiffed 78 batters for a ratio of 7.3 strikeouts per nine innings, which is just a tad above average. Meanwhile, he has walked only five batters, or 0.47 per nine innings. Only once in history has a pitcher qualified for the ERA title—which requires at least 162 innings pitched—while walking less than ½ a batter per nine innings. In 2005, Carlos Silva walked nine batters in nearly 200 innings, but he did so by pitching to contact; he struck out only 71 over the course of the entire year. This season, Lee has generated plenty of strikeouts while exhibiting some of the best control for a starting pitcher in the history of the game.
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