The Brewster

Alaric Wullenweber has a shot at striking out 300 batters, a feat done only twelve times in the modern-era and not achieved since Miguel Datiz K’d 303 for New Orleans back in 2027. San Antonio’s Aki Kondo once led his league in K/9 for four-consecutive seasons and is still topping a 9.0 per nine in his ninth big league season. Arthur Dempster whiffed 17 batters last year in a September start against Jacksonville, the tied for the second-highest single game total in the modern era.

The Brewster has its fair share of strikeout artists, but who’s dominating batters at the classic swing-and-miss? Unfortunately, the metric Swinging Strike Rate (SwStr%) is not publically available and I was disappointed it was not included in OOTP21, but thanks to Ron sharing game log data, I was able to pull out the numbers.

Here are the Top 30 SwStr% for 2042 thru August 11th for starting pitchers:

NAME	TEAM	SwStr%	K/9	STUFF	MOVEMENT	CONTROL	VELO
Jefferson Pierce	CLG	12.7%	11.0	11	6	6	100+
Chandler Hall	EDM	12.7%	10.1	10	7	9	97-99
Alaric Wullenweber	HAW	12.5%	11.7	11	7	9	98-100
Keijo Reini	CHA	12.3%	11.0	11	3	6	96-98
Aki Kondo	SA	11.8%	9.4	11	5	8	99-101
Eru Likiliki	NAS	11.5%	9.8	8	5	7	98-101
Ernesto Ramos	YS	11.4%	9.6	10	6	7	96-98
Jim Armstrong	NO	11.4%	10.6	11	7	5	99-101
Adergazoz Ouakili	CHA	11.4%	10.4	11	4	6	96-98
In-sung Yi	OMA	11.3%	11.9	11	4	6	96-98
Jubal Troop	EDM	11.2%	9.2	10	5	6	99-101
Alvin Chartrand	LV	11.1%	8.3	7	7	5	98-100
Jonathan Merritt	MAD	11.1%	10.7	9	2	6	93-95
Héctor Márquez	SEA	11.1%	9.8	9	6	6	94-96
José Martínez	VAL	11.0%	8.9	9	5	7	97-99
Ragnar Lothbrok	TWC	11.0%	9.8	7	5	6	99-101
Carlos Valle	YS	11.0%	8.8	8	7	8	95-97
Danya Tchekanov	LB	11.0%	9.7	9	8	9	94-96
Ricardo Rivera	SA	10.9%	8.6	9	10	7	98-100
Manuel Andrés	CAL	10.9%	10.4	11	5	5	99-101
Carlos Pineda	YS	10.9%	9.9	9	5	8	98-101
Jorge García	VAL	10.8%	9.3	9	4	7	97-99
Charlie Iron-Knife	PHX	10.8%	9.3	10	6	3	89-91
José Olivas	SA	10.8%	9.4	10	4	4	97-99
Luis Rojas	CC	10.7%	9.0	10	7	7	99-101
Arthur Dempster	RCK	10.7%	9.2	10	7	6	98-100
Thiongo Amir	ATC	10.5%	7.6	7	5	8	98-100
Don Smith	PHX	10.5%	9.7	9	8	8	93-95
Ken Walter	SEA	10.5%	9.4	9	7	7	96-98
Amayas Moelling	CHI	10.5%	7.7	8	8	8	99-101

Notes:

• Pierce is the hardest throwing starting pitcher in the big leagues and uses a combination of 11 STUFF, 11 Fastball and 100+ velo, along with three plus-plus off-speed pitches to rack up the swing-and-misses.

• Likiliki so-so rated by scouts and doesn't throw a fastball, but his 11 Slider coming in hard and from a sidearm angle, along with a good splitter and forkball, keeps hitters off-balance.

• Chartrand's K-rate isn't elite (but still very good), scouts give him above-average grades and his best pitches are "only" a 8-rated Fastball and Splitter, so why the twelfth-best SwStr%? Well, he throws gas so that's going to always help, but I think it's due to being one of the few pitchers in the Brewster who own a six-pitch repertoire that likely has batters guessing at every pitch.

• Iron-Knive's strong whiff-rate can only be attributed to one obvious thing: a devastating 12 Knuckleball. Although he missed Top 30 status, fellow knuckleballer Abe Colbert Jr. has a very strong 10.2 SwStr%, along with a K/9 of 10.0.

• The Cougars have two of the top nine pitchers excelling in swing-and-misses, a great sign for a newer ball club looking for an identity and establish a strong pitching staff.

On the flip-side, here are the ten lowest swinging strike rate among starters in 2042:

NAME	TEAM	SwStr%	K/9	STUFF	MOVEMENT	CONTROL	VELO
José Rivera	DM	6.7%	4.9	5	5	6	95-97
Sean Gardner	CHA	6.8%	5.5	5	6	5	94-96
Abel van Gastel	JAX	6.9%	4.4	7	3	5	98-100
José Montoya	WIC	6.9%	3.7	6	6	6	95-97
Quintiliano Rodeia	CLG	7.0%	4.0	5	6	8	95-97
Nick Pearce	CAL	7.2%	5.0	4	7	5	94-96
Pedro Rocha	MEX	7.2%	5.1	7	7	7	97-99
Patrick Patchett	LB	7.3%	5.7	4	7	8	94-96
Robin Cooper	BOI	7.4%	4.0	5	8	4	94-96
Augusto Sánchez	LOU	7.4%	5.8	8	7	5	90-92

Notes:

• van Gastel's Stuff isn't terrible, he can run it up in triple digits, and has an elite Fastball (9) and Slider (10) with a fully developed third pitch (6 Changeup)...so what gives? Well, his K/9 in 2030 for Des Moines was a good 7.9 and in just under 200 minor league innings in 2041-2042, he struck out an average of 9.4 per nine, so unless there's an underlying injury or mechanics issue, I expect a regression back to passable metrics next year.

• Get this: Sanchez led the league in K/9 with 11.2 just two years ago! A ruptured UCL during the playoffs that year has all the signs of a career-altering injury, or at the very least, Sanchez is a long ways away from returning back to his previous form.

For shits and giggles, here's the top whiffers amongst relievers in 2042:

NAME	TEAM	SwStr%
Jarred Perkins	SEA	14.9%
Lorenzo de' Medici	NAS	14.8%
Cornell Sánchez	PHX	14.2%
Lúcio Gómez	ATC	13.5%
Shawn Huber	LV	12.8%
Juan Pinto	LOU	12.8%
Wan-ling Lou	CAL	12.6%
Jorge Huerta	EDM	12.6%
Norm McConnell	HAW	12.5%
Felipe López	HAW	12.5%
Júlio Cuevas	PHX	12.4%
Marco Vitalle	CAL	12.4%
Wen Huang	TWC	12.3%
John Wilson	CC	12.2%
Dave Walsh	BOI	12.2%
Gilberto Sosa	CHI	12.2%
Matthew Mangual	PHX	12.1%
Sergio Pérez	YS	12.1%
Roberto Ramírez	YS	12.0%
Manuel Cruz	NO	11.9%
Miguel Angel Garza	SEA	11.8%
Pedro Tañón	DM	11.8%
Eric Holliday	SA	11.7%
Vincente Venalde	POR	11.7%
Andresa Pires	LOU	11.6%

Well done!!

Mark Wareham does his best to pad these guys stats... lol.

Nice. I find it comforting that there appears to be some correlation to the stuff/SwStr%.

Sweet. Unlike batters facing Jefferson Pierce, you made solid contact and jacked this piece outta the park. Bravo, Joe!

Go Merritt!! My little Rule-5 guy