Archive for Jered WEaver

Last night, Jered Weaver threw the 274th no-hitter in baseball history — or so the stories say. There have been two no-hitters so far this year, and ten so far in this young decade. Half of them came in 2010, the year whose no-hit frequency led some to dub it “The Year of the Pitcher.”

And, indeed, the five regular-season no-hitters thrown in 2010 (along with a sixth, by Roy Halladay, in the playoffs) mark it as one of the no-hittiest years in history. The five regular season no-nos tie it for third place, with 1962, 1968, 1973, and 1991, and the six overall tie it for second place with 1969. (Of course, many will remember that there almost was — and should have been — a seventh.) But the most of all were thrown in 1990: eight overall. The frequency of no-hitters per year hasn’t increased, except with respect to the historically anomalous 2000’s.

Data here and throughout compiled from baseball-reference play index and MLB.com’s no-hitter registry.
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Justin Verlander notched win No. 20 this past weekend. With the victory, he became the season’s first to reach the milestone, and perhaps most impressively, the first AL pitcher to hit the 20-win mark through August since Roger Clemens did it in 1997 with Toronto.

Combine factoids like this with his tremendous numbers so far, and it’s easy to see why many are boarding the Verlander-for-Cy Young Award bandwagon. And that might just be the start: Verlander now has emerged as a legitimate candidate for the American League’s Most Valuable Player award. But should be considered for the honor? In fact, should any pitcher win an MVP? Heck, is Verlander even a lock for the Cy Young?

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It takes a little luck to be a real-life All-Star, or to win yourself some individual hardware. Both Cy Young winners outperformed their FIPs by a nice clip last season. Felix Hernandez (2.27 ERA, 3.04 FIP) and Roy Halladay (2.44 ERA, 3.01 FIP) also did this despite owning career ERAs and FIPs that were much closer together. Fantasy baseball sleeper lists are rife with those that underperformed their FIPs – Francisco Liriano (3.62 ERA, 2.66 FIP) and Yovani Gallardo (3.84 ERA, 3.02 FIP) might feature prominently.

But what about the players that suffered through a season of incredibly neutral luck? Should we not celebrate them somehow? They somehow managed to flip a coin a hundred times and get fifty tails. That seems worth… something.

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