Ubaldo Jiminez, Josh Johnson, Stephen Strasburg

[erik316wttn]

Strasburg threw a side session today and reported no pain or discomfort, so that's a good sign.

[Clem Fandango]

Since this thread is about ridiculously good pitchers, I thought I'd toss Francisco Liriano's name into the ring. Some people on here in my fantasy league are probably rolling their eyes cause I've been talking him up for the last week, but what he's accomplishing is pretty incredible.

 

He currently leads all major league pitchers with a 5.5 WAR (Josh Johnson is 5.3, Roy Halladay is 5.2). He's got a 21 inning scoreless streak at the moment, it's the 2nd time this year he's had a scoreless streak of 20 innings or more. His overall numbers are 3.18 ERA and 1.19 WHIP and he has 150K's in 136IP, good for a 9.93 K/9 ratio, 2nd best in the majors behind Brandon Morrow's 9.96. His overall numbers are great, but when you take into account some of the other factors you start to realize just how amazing he's been this year.

 

He has a BABIP against of .343. 5th worst in the majors. His FIP is 2.07, best in the majors, and by a WIDE margin (Josh Johnson is in 2nd with a 2.32 FIP). Liriano's xFIP is a major league best 2.83 (Halladay in 2nd with 2.95).

 

He has been dealt a really crappy hand with his batted ball luck, and despite all that he remains the most valuable pitcher in the majors. I'm not sure if it can be done, I'm still relatively new to the whole FIP era of stats, but is there a way to calculate what his averages would be if his BABIP were in line with league averages? I can't even begin top imagine how insane his numbers would look if his BABIP were down to around .290-.300.

 

He's been an under the radar Cy Young candidate who is getting overshadowed by Johnson, Halladay, Price, and Jimenez, when the reality is he's currently the most valuable pitcher in the majors. Also, shockingly, he's allowed only 2 home runs all year long, good for a ridiculous (and probably unsustainable) 0.13 HR/9 rate.

 

He's been otherworldly... and not very many people around baseball are noticing.

 

P.S. I have a baseball mancrush on Francisco Liriano, he's my favorite player in all of baseball and has been since before he was a rookie

[NCCubFan]

I'm not sure Liriano is that much of a surprise since he appeared to be well on his way to stardom before having TJS. I think it was just a matter of time until he completed his comeback.

[Clem Fandango]

A surprise that he's successful, not really. He did have the pedigree of a top pitching prospect, but considering all his problems after his surgery (high walk rates, up and down between the minors, etc) it's really impressive he's been able to put up these numbers... especially considering how unlucky he's been on batted balls.

 

It's just a shame he's not getting the recognition guys like Johnson, Price, Halladay, and Jimenez have been getting because his overall numbers that the media pays attention to don't match up to theirs

[TruffleShuffle]

I'm not sure Liriano is that much of a surprise since he appeared to be well on his way to stardom before having TJS. I think it was just a matter of time until he completed his comeback.

 

i wouldn't necessarily say that. he threw a ridiculous slider pre-surgery (a la 1998 kerry wood) and there were questions about whether he would/should be able to throw it again after surgery.

[Clem Fandango]

I don't know how his slider looks this year as I haven't really been able to catch many highlights, but I imagine he doesn't throw it nearly as often, nor does it have nearly the same bite it used to. But I do recall scouts and analysts last year during his struggles saying that he just looked like he was scared to try and throw it again, maybe in fear of damaging his arm again, and this lead to high walk rates and high ER totals. Guess all he needed was to gain back his confidence and trust his arm to hold up.

 

It's working

[Magnetic Curses]

i can't believe that strasburg's hurt

[Magnetic Curses]

i can't believe that strasburg's hurt again.

[erik316wttn]

i can't believe that strasburg's hurt again.

 

Just shut him down for the rest of the year. No use risking the health of the future of your franchise on a lost season.