Off Topic
Killer BBees Racking Up Ks
June 9, 2043: Yellow Springs – As the leader says, the date in June 9th—which means that the season is now a touch past two months old. The club from Yellow Springs has been dominating their opponents for much of the past month and a half, a situation that finds the team sitting at 44-19, and suddenly 7.5 games ahead of their strongest competitor.
How is this possible? Seriously?
The Heartland division remains the dominant division in the Frick League, and arguably of baseball. Its 6th place team, Chicago, is over .500 and would be a half game out of second in the Pacific. Its 7th place team, Des Moines, would sit in fourth place in that division. Omaha, last in the Frick, would be 3 and a half games up in the Pacific cellar-dwellers, and that’s only after an 0-12 start. The Nine have lost one of the best starters in the game, and now three solid bullpen arms. They’ve lost their best catcher for a month. How is it possible for the Nine to be this far ahead of the best division in baseball? I mean, besides the fact that it’s not yet October, right?
Here are a few numbers to contemplate, though.
87.
568.
As in 87 walks, which is the number of free passes the Nine have allowed, and 568 strikeouts, which is the number of batters Nine pitchers have set down without getting the bat on the ball. Both of these numbers lead the league. By a large margin.
How large?
STRIKEOUT MACHINES
The number two team in the Frick League is the vaunted Tropic staff in Hawaii. As a collective their club has K’ed 487 hitters. Next comes the Di Medici wonders in Nashville with 486 strikeouts. Pretty close. At 568 strikeouts, the Nine’s total is 81 more than Hawaii, and 82 more than Nashville. That’s right. The gap between the Nine and their second best competitor in the strikeout department is 81 Ks big. The gap between Hawaii and the #14 team in the Frick is 69 strikeouts.
Whhooee…
What’s most interesting about this is that the club is doing it with a full court press. Only Ernesto Ramos shows up on the leader board when it comes to the rotation. Bullpen ace Tiernan O’Macken’s 80 makes an appearance out of the bullpen. Carlos Valle is tossing a competitive 7.7 K/9, so it’s not coming from there. The rest of the pen, though…Angel Hernandez is at 14.2 K/9. Sergio Perez sits at 10.6 and Roberto Ramirez 10.4. Bottom line: in a similar fashion to offensive WAR, the pressure the Nine staff is bringing comes from all directions.
Control Freaks
Similarly, 87 walks.
The next fewest is Louisville with 109. Sacramento rings in third at 125.
As a team, the Nine’s K/BB ratio is 6.53. It has hit fewer batters than any staff other than Loserville’s. As a result, it’s team OBP Against is almost ten points better than any other staff in the Frick.
“We like to control the strike zone,” said pitching coach Alberto Sanchez. “It’s something I like to preach, but admittedly sometimes it takes better than others.”
In the early stages of 2043 we’d say it’s taking pretty well.
