It’s been one month since the 2020 season began. Each team has played approximately 30 games. A starter should have already made 4 to 6 starts thus far. In this shortened season, it gives us something interesting to watch. Charlie Blackmon’s batting average is still above .400. On the mound, Trevor Bauer’s ERA is still below 1.00.
Trevor Bauer is outstanding this season. In 4 starts, he threw 41 strikeouts, giving up only 7 walks and 8 hits. He also has two 7-inning shutouts.
Shane Bieber has already struck out 65, leading the majors. In 40.2 innings, he only issued 6 walks. His K/BB ratio is 10.83, also leading in the MLB.
With Mike Soroka out for the rest of the season, Max Fried shows that he’s the Atlanta Braves’ Ace now. Fried allowed only 5 runs in 6 starts, the Braves truly rely on him since he’s the only pitcher, who stays in the rotation from the beginning of the season.
I was just wondering how many pitchers finished a season with an ERA below 1.00, so I tried to find something on the baseball reference website. In total, only 2 pitchers finished the season with an ERA below 1.00. Tim Keefe, who played for the Troy Trojans, had a 0.86 ERA in 1880. Dutch Leonard won the ERA title in 1914 with an only 0.96 ERA.
No surprise. Trevor Bauer and Shane Bieber are on the WHIP leaderboard. But, Kenta Maeda, who was traded to the Twins from the Dodgers in February, has been very solid on the mound so far. In 5 starts, Maeda only allowed 14 hits and gave up only 6 walks. He tossed a near-hitless game in the last outing against the Brewers on August 18th.
A pitcher with a WHIP of 1 or below is considered elite. How about a pitcher with a WHIP below 0.80? Only 4 pitchers finished a season with a WHIP of 0.80 or below. Well, we see two Hall of Famers here. Pedro Martinez won the Cy Young award three times. In 2000, the last time he was the Cy Young winner, he tossed 7 complete games and 4 shutouts. His ERA was only 1.74 and he set the single season WHIP record with an only 0.74 WHIP. The other Hall of Famer Walter Johnson tossed 346 innings in 1913 and he finished the season with a 1.14 ERA and a WHIP of 0.78. Guy Hecker had a WHIP of 0.77 in 1882 with 104 innings pitched. It’s also very interesting to note that Guy Hecker tossed 670.2 innings for the Louisville Eclipse and won 52 games in 1884. 52 wins, can you believe it? There are only 60 games this season.
Only 60 games in this shortened season, a starting pitcher should have approximately 12 starts. With only one month remaining in this season, we probably won’t see a pitcher toss more than 100 innings this season. Maybe no one will pitch more than 90 innings this season. However, it will still be worth watching to see if there is a pitcher that could finish a season with an ERA below 1.00 or a WHIP below 0.80.
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