The Best Pitcher In The World Is A 5'11 Man Named Spencer From Knoxville, Tennessee
Lachlan Cunningham. Getty Images.I've updated my formal quantitative player power rankings and Spencer Strider is officially the best pitcher in baseball. Even if we just said the same thing about Gerrit Cole yesterday. I am making a full pivot from the Barstool Baseball collective and unilaterally giving that designation to Spencer. (Subject to change tomorrow, obviously.)
The numbers are insane…
- 49 strikeouts in 30 innings against 14 hits and 11 walks*. The baserunner to strikeout ratio is preposterous.
- He's got 9 straight starts of at least 9 strikeouts.
- For his career: 251 strikeouts in 164 innings
Take out appearances as a reliever and you get to:
- 13-4 with a 2.56 ERA
- 137.1 innings pitch with 86 hits and 45 walks against 214 strikeouts.
- 14.0 k/9 in career as a starter. Chris Sale holds the MLB record for career at 11.1 and never had a season higher than 13.5. In other words, Spencer Strider's career average is objectively better than the best single season from the current record holder.
- Career slash against is .173/.250/.255 in 652 plate appearances. That's enough plate appearances to personify his career numbers as one full season from a position player. So let's do that.
This is where things get insane.
Just for context. Just to get an idea of how good Spencer Strider's been in his first 25 career starts…. his slash line against (avg/obp/slg) represented as an individual player would be the 4,126th best of 4,139 qualified hitters in MLB history.
That's comparing it to careers. As a single season?
13,599th out of 13,697, worse than 99.3% of all qualified seasons since the live ball era started in 1920.
If we narrow it to since Strider was born, you might believe me when I say he could end up being the best pitcher of all time.
Since Spencer Strider was born, his career average against would rank 3,717 out of… 3,717. And it would be dead last by a MILE. That .173/.250/.255 is about 10% worse than Chris Davis's famous 2018 season of a .539 OPS/46 wRC+.
If you look at all the careers since he was born, it would be 1,180th out of… yes… 1,180. Right behind Drew Butera, Jeff Mathis and Koyie Hill.
So to wrap that up, the average MLB hitter against Spencer Strider is:
1. Worse than 99.3% of any qualified season of the last 103 years
2. The 13th worst hitter in MLB history
3. Worse than any qualified season of his life
4. Worse than any qualified career of his life
So when I say he could end up being the best pitcher of all time, I'm not talking out of my butt cheeks. He's already had his Tommy John. He's playing for one of the deepest and best run organizations in MLB now and of the last several decades. He's 24 years old and still learning how to pitch. Think of deGrom with actual support vs. shouldering the Mets burden for the better part of a decade.
Now consider that Strider right now at 24 is where deGrom was at 30 during his 2018 breakout campaign. Yes, he was ROY and had very good seasons from 2014-2017. But the Jacob deGrom we know as one of the best of his generation didn't really show up full time until 2018 when he pulled back-to-back Cy Young awards.
Objectively, Spencer Strider is already at that level and he's there 520 innings and 6 years before deGrom could've said the same for himself.
Do I think Spencer Strider will be the best of all time?
No. It's an utterly preposterous expectation riddled with significant factors outside his control.
But even so, he's talented enough to do it and that's enough for me to talk about it. If that makes me crazy then I'll be the crazy asshole. So be it.
Spencer Strider could be the GOAT and we'll just have to find out.
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Some other stuff from last night….
Spencer Strider loses perfect game/no hitter
Oh yeah. He had a perfect game last night lost on a routine grounder to Matt Olson. Then gave up a base hit to Jean Segura in the 8th.
25 career starts for the guy. Please please please stay healthy.
Sonny Gray is Dealing
He's down to a 0.62 ERA, best in baseball. Who knows why or how. Minnesota confuses my emotions so much. It's like boiling water. Nothing happens when I watch. The second I turn around, the whistle starts blowing. The Twins start rolling and smashing teams. But if I'm watching the Twins? They don't do shit. One of these days I'll catch it in real time
Like this Joey Gallo missile
And yet these assholes will follow him forever:
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It's so obnoxious that I'm going full reversal now and saying I RESPECT Yankees fans for this commitment. Joey Gallo is a regular man just trying to do his job and go home to his family. You wouldn't travel cross country to heckle a carpenter that botched a cabinet installation. You'd write a shitty review, leave a vaguely threatening message then ask your cousin to help fix it.
My point is you got Anthony Rizzo No Shift and you're still marinating in Joey Gallo misery. I feel like Derek Jeter would ask you guys to move on, respectfully.
The A's won a game tonight
They hit 5 home runs and still almost lost.
5-1 after 2
7-2 after 3
7-8 after 7
11-8 into bottom 10
11-10 finale
I know they suck but even the Wins are nearly impossible to believe. What I'm about to say is very true.
The A's have 5 wins on the season.
4 of those wins are by 1-run AND have come in the last at-bat. So not even your run of the mill 1-run games. We're talking 9th/10th inning heroics to salvage 4 of the 5 victories.
The other, single, lone win on the season was 8-4 against the Orioles. They were tied 4-4 in the 8th.
My point is they are shitty. Sure. -102 run differential.
But they're actually so bad that if you look at their game log, you can Very Easily find a path to 0-23.
Or at the very least, you can believe me when I say 25 wins would be a huge accomplishment.
Sick Play - Luis Robert
Just a nice catch. Not a lot of nice things going on with the White Sox. Gotta call it out when you see it.
Sick Play - Wander Franco
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Meanwhile a ton of great things with the Rays, like Wander Franco being healthy to play every day. At 22 years old he looks like he's about to be one of the next great American League shortstops. I mean he's pretty fuckin great right now. But I mean the kinda guy that ends up in a Posnanski Top 100 book. His .967 OPS is no joke and the Rays are the first to 20 wins behind it. Or alongside it.
Actually who knows who gets the credit for the Rays. They're 1st in almost every major team category so call it a dealer's choice. Today I say it's the emergence of Wander Franco. Tomorrow it will be Shane McClanahan shattering MLB's single game whiff% record for the 2nd straight start. Just a matter of choice at this point.
Miscellaneous
- Our pal Vinnie Pasquantino is on fire with Yordan like numbers except half the strikeouts. He was 3-4 with a walk last night after Jets traded for Aaron Rodgers. Hard for me to think which one made him happier. Vinnie Watch doesn't start for a couple weeks so take your time getting familiar with his game in Kansas City.
- The Cubs are ahead of schedule. I feel like a Northern Lord in Westeros accepting Eddard Stark a fortnight early. It's not a bad thing at all. I just thought there'd be more time to prepare the feast.
- Barstool Baseball launched the 1st of 2 weekly shows yesterday. It's a weekly power ranking panel with me, Klemmer, Hubbs and Castellani. 4 different divisions. A range of 27-40's evenly spaced out with sincere passion. It's been a good mix and will only get better. Watch most recent episode here. We'll be back Wednesday night with a different group for a headlines show.