There Are No Words
Pedro Martinez’s 1999/2000 seasons are probably the best stretch of pitching in baseball history. His numbers are just hilarious when you look back at them – in 1999, he put up a line of 1.56 BB/9, 13.20 K/9, and 0.38 HR/9, good for a 1.39 FIP. Don’t like the fact that he had a high BABIP that year? Then pick 2000, when his ratios fell all the way to 1.33 B/99, 11.78 K/9, and 0.78 HR/9, but his BABIP was .253, which helped push his ERA to just 1.74.
Regardless of which year you prefer, both are historically great. And if you didn’t get to see it happen, you’re seeing it again with Cliff Lee in the playoffs.
0.38 BB/9, 12.75 K/9, and 0.38 HR/9 through three starts, good for a 0.91 FIP. It’s not like he’s getting all that lucky on home runs either – his xFIP is 1.34. This is Pedro-in-his-prime stuff, but he’s doing it against the best teams in the best league in games that are basically do-or-die. If there have been better performances in playoff history, they aren’t that much better, and they probably didn’t come back to back to back. This is a legend in the making.
We will all tell our children about these three starts. If he does this again in Game 7 to win the ALCS for the Rangers, we’ll be wondering where this ranks in the history of sport.
On the biggest possible stage, Cliff Lee is pitching about as well as anyone has ever pitched. He deserves every accolade thrown his way. As Jerry Crasnick said, we are running out of adjectives to describe him.
All we can do is enjoy it. We may never see anything like this again.
Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.
I just wanted to make sure they knew how good I really am… you know, for the negotiations next month. 6y @ $30m good? I think so.
Is there any evidence at all that pitchers can really “step up” their games in the playoffs vs. what they do in the regular season, or is it all just SSS?
Pedro did it over two seasons – Cliff Lee has done it through three starts. Isn’t the comparison a bit of a stretch?
Dear Cliff Lee,
How do you pitch so well? I really like that you don’t walk guys much at all. The way you shut out the Yankees for 8 innings in the ALCS was really neat! I have a framed picture of you on my wall that I like to look at when there isn’t any baseball on TV. I’m saving up to buy a ticket when to see you play if you come face the Mariners next year (if you’re in the AL). I’m a big Mariners fan, so I hope the score is 0-0!
See ya soon,
Dave
No, no, no, it’s:
Dear Cliff,
I feel like I can call you Cliff ’cause you and me are so much alike. I would love to meet you someday. It would be great to have a catch. I know I can’t throw as fast as you, but I think you would be impressed by my speed. I love your hair. You have great control. Did you have a good relationship with your father? Me neither. These are all things we can talk about. And more. I know you have not been getting my letters because I know you would write back if you did. And I hope you write back this time and we get to be good friends. I’m sure our relationship would be a real home run.
-Dave
It’d be a stretch if Dave said Cliff Lee was as good as Pedro in ’99-’00. He didn’t. He just said that this stretch of pitching is on par with that level of excellence. Everyone knows it’s a small sample. It’s obvious to the point of being beneath mention.
doug – no stretch. cliff lee was dominant in last years playoffs. he was dominant when healthy this year as well
He was dominant, but Pedro was absolutely superhuman. There really is no modern comparrison.
pedro also it for two years in the most bloated offensive era since the great depression. with all due respect to the tampa bay rays…
Yep. Not to take anything away from Lee’s incredible performances, but Pedro was pitching at the peak of the home run binge in a bigtime hitter’s park in the toughest division in baseball. I think we can safely say we’ll never see anything like his 99/00 again.
That said, watching Lee mow down the Yankees in the 7th and 8th last night gave me chills.
Was Pedro really pitching in the toughest division in baseball in 99/00? I mean, when you take into account he was on the Red Sox, Tampa was terrible back then, if I remember correctly the Orioles were pretty awful and the Blue Jays were maybe mediocre. The Yankees were of course loaded with talent.
Not trying to diminish what Pedro did, it would be ridiculous even if he put up those numbers for 2 years against this year’s Mariners, but I feel people are willing to assume everything that has ever happened in the American League East is even better than it seems.
In 1999 the American League had a .786 OPS. In 2010, the Rays had a .736 OPS. Like the others, I’m not trying to take anything away from Cliff Lee or the Rays, but I just thought that needed to be mentioned.
It’s not like FIP is adjusted on a year to year basis to account for the run environment.
Oh wait? It is. Oh that’s right. It is.
FIP uses only HRs, BBs, Ks, and IP. In future, be less smug when wrong.
In addition to HR, BB, K, and IP, FIP also has a constant term that changes to account for the run environment. It’s usually around 3.2, and it’s what LawBoss was referring to.
A 2.00 FIP is a better year in 2000 than in 2010. It doesn’t adjust to the era.
Cliff Leegendary!
Sadface.
alright, it’s lame.
Not as lame as Tallet’s awful moustache. It’s not even cool, it’s just like “why do you do that?”
Cliff GodLee
“There are no words”
*clicks link*
four paragraphs of text.
Well, talk about a poor title for an article.
A few alternatives:
“We’re running out of words…”
“There are few words left…”
“We may have to invent new words…”
“We’re resorting to wild gesticulating to describe his performances…”
There are no words? Disagree.
http://joeposnanski.blogspot.com/2010/10/natural-lee.html#more
How can you watch baseball! Can’t you hear there are childrens’ tummies that are rumbing?
Now you ain’t got a number
You just want to rhumba
And there ain’t no way you’re gonna go under
The Posnanski article linked above is awesome.
And as if Cliff Lee needed any more positive things said about him… but his pace of pitching was great. He doesn’t take much time between pitches and his catcher only needs to sit behind the plate and call the signs. Before you were done admiring his last pitch, the next one was on the way.
You have some seed on your chin that could use a good blotting.
Oh hai guise, saw this was a Dave Cameron article and I decided that, like all of his articles, I would relentlessly criticize every minor mistake he makes because I’m a total twat with nothing better to do than brood.
“There are no words” looks like you found plenty, amirite?
Oh, #6org lololololololol.
I’m sorry your hero wrote another post with zero insight. And btw, when you’re a snarky douche, people are going to give it back to you tenfold. Run along and tell Dave how awesome he is now.
Just for the record the post this was attempting to make fun of still has twice the +s of this one.
I’m sorry, but saying “There are no words” and then writing an article is kinda dumb. Not as dumb as you defending it and making fun of people pointing it out though.
It’s a bad headline.
For the record, it’s completely possible to recognize that there are “no words” to fully describe something. That doesn’t mean you can’t do your best to try to encapsulate his performances with words, knowing that you’ll fall short. He didn’t say “There are no words to fully describe Cliff Lee,” and then follow it up with “Here are the words to fully describe Cliff Lee.”
Good grief…
“Everyone knows it’s a small sample. It’s obvious to the point of being beneath mention.”
Hey look it’s the rare arrogant jerk who also has no clue what he’s talking about.
There have probably been a million starting pitchers that have put up those or better numbers over the course of three starts.
Even if you limit it to the playoffs, just three years ago there’s a comparable. In 4 starts, Josh Beckett went 35-2 K:BB and gave up one home run.
The thing that’s beneath mention is everything in Dave’s post.
“We will all tell our children about these three starts. ”
No, we won’t. We’ll probably forget about it roughly sometime in 2012.
I’d still rather watch Roy Halladay.
I think Dave is entitled to get excited about Cliff Lee’s postseason. While not everyone here is going to tell his grandchildren, perhaps Dave is looking forward to that opportunity.
And all he’s saying is that on the biggest stage possible (except the WS), Cliff Lee is performing like Pedro did back in the day. I would guess that the likelihood of seeing a 0.91 FIP in one postseason over at least 3 starts is pretty slim…and still slim in the next 5 or 10.
Next 5 or 10 postseasons, that is.
Not if Strasburg gets to play
J’aime lire des commentaires, en apprenant smoke assist quelquefois beaucoup d’eux ou étant amusé par eux.