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.
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.
- 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.
That’s comparing it to careers.
As a single season?
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+.
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.
He’s already had his Tommy John.
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 Striderright nowat 24 is where deGrom was at 30 during his 2018 breakout campaign.
Yes, he was ROY and had very good seasons from 2014-2017.
Do I think Spencer Strider will be the best of all time?
It’s an utterly preposterous expectation riddled with significant factors outside his control.
If that makes me crazy then I’ll be the crazy asshole.
Spencer Strider could be the GOAT and we’ll just have to find out.
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.
hey hey hey 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.
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.
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 andstill almost lost.
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.
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
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.
