Major League Baseball

Phils pitchers on pace to shatter mark

Published Jun. 20, 2011 1:00 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Everyone expected the Philadelphia Phillies' starting rotation to be great, but by one key statistical measure it ranks as the best in baseball history, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Phillies starters are on pace to shatter the all-time record for strikeout-to-walk ratio, striking out 4.37 batters for every batter walked. That nearly laps the second-best Milwaukee Brewers (2.97).

Four strikeouts for every walk has been an impossible barrier for pitching rotations to crack. The only team to come close was the 2002 Arizona Diamondbacks, which finished at 3.88 thanks largely to Curt Schilling (6.06) and Randy Johnson (4.63).

Three Phillies have at least four strikeouts per walk -- Roy Halladay (8.14), Cole Hamels (5.42) and Cliff Lee (4.63).

Just one other team has had three starters accomplish that, the 2005 Minnesota Twins, with Carlos Silva, Brad Radke and Johan Santana. Only 16 teams in league history have had even two starters exceed four strikeouts for every free pass.

The Phillies' pitchers' superlatives keep piling up: Halladay's ratio leads the majors and would be eighth-best all-time for a full season; Lee's 10.28 last year for the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers led the majors; Hamels' current rate is a career high.

It's no surprise that Philadelphia's dominance of the strike zone is translating to the standings. Eight of the other nine teams in the category's all-time top 10 won 92 games or more, and two -- the 2001 Diamondbacks and 1963 LA Dodgers -- ended the season as World Series champions.

Read more here.

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball