Justin Verlander of the Tigers won his 20th game last night. Now, I’m not one to make a deal out of pitcher wins, but what the Tigers’ ace is doing right now is pretty astounding. He’s got a 20-5 record, and we haven’t even reached September yet. That’s the best mark in baseball by three wins. His 2.38 ERA is third in baseball and second in the AL, behind Johnny Cueto of the Reds and Jered Weaver of the Angels (both at 2.03). Then there are his 218 strikeouts, best in baseball (by 11 over Clayton Kershaw, and by 23 over Felix Hernandez in the AL). And if you’re into durability, Verlander’s 215 2/3 innings lead baseball by ten over CC Sabathia. He’s even thrown more than the great Roy Halladay, who has just thrown 189 2/3….good for second in the NL, but far behind Verlander’s league leading total.
The Tigers have 30 games left, so figure that Verlander has five or six starts left this season. If he continues on his current pace of throwing seven innings a start and striking out nine batters, he’ll finish with around 250 innings and 255 strikeouts along with at least 20 wins and an ERA under 2.50. These are some pretty daunting numbers.
Hitting that butter zone hasn’t happened too often in the past 40 years. The last four pitchers to do it were Randy Johnson in 2002, Roger Clemens in 1997, Dwight Gooden in 1985 and Steve Carlton in 1980. They have one thing in common: they all won the Cy Young award. It happened four times in a two season stretch in the 70’s, with Vida Blue winning in ’71 and Carlton winning in ’72, while Tom Seaver was the runner up in ’71 and Mickey Lolich finished third in ’72.
What I’m saying is that there is precedence for a pitcher hitting all of these magic marks, and they all finished high in the Cy Young voting, with a majority of them winning the award. Verlander also has a shot at winning the pitching triple crown, leading two of the categories while ranking highly in the third. The last six triple crown winners were Jake Peavy in ’07, Johan Santana in ’06, Johnson in ’02, Pedro Martinez in ’99, and Clemens in both ’97 and ’98. They all won the Cy Young award. Santana is the only player in the last 25 years to win the major league triple crown, with the last one before him being Gooden in ’85. Again, another Cy Young winner.
Verlander’s season has been special. You all know about my distaste for wins, but Verlander’s record has been just silly lately. He’s won eight straight starts, and is 16-2 over his last eighteen. Verlander actually started the season with a 2-3 month of April. He’s 18-2 in 23 starts since then. Verlander hasn’t been just the best pitcher in the game this year, he’s been one of the best players. I’d really like to see him get some love in the MVP voting in addition to the Cy Young voting, but I have a nagging feeling that won’t happen, and that’s a shame.
