Monthly Archives: August 2011

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Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers is the best pitcher in Major League Baseball

In the last twenty years, five pitchers have achieved 23 wins or more during a single regular season. In 1996, John Smoltz won 24 for the Atlanta Braves. In ’99, Pedro Martinez won 23 for the Red Sox. The remaining three achieved the feat in 2002, with Randy Johnson and Curt Shilling taking 24 and 23 respectively for the Arizona Diamond Backs and Barry Zito winning 23 for the Oakland As. That is all. No one has done it since 2002. In this age of baseball, it’s a pretty big deal.

This season, there are two pitchers with a shot at it. New York Yankees pitcher C.C. Sabathia has won 16 of his 21 starts. He is slated to start another 8 games this regular season.If Sabathia keeps up his 76 percent win percentage, that will put him at 22 wins. Just shy of the mark. Detroit’s Justin Verlander has won 15 of his 20 starts. He is scheduled for nine more starts this regular season but will get ten if the race for the AL Central stays tight. Assuming he keeps up his 75 percent win percentage, he will finish with 21 or 22 wins.

Justin Verlander on 2/14/11 in Lakeland, Fla. By Chuck Welch via Flickr.

But here is the difference: Sabathia’s five losses are spread out equally over the entire season, and his ERA is holding relatively steady on a month-to-month basis. Thus, there is no reason to believe Sabathia will improve his win percentage over his remaining games. Verlander, though, is getting hot. Three of his five losses occurred in April, early in the season. More illustrative is his ERA. During the month of April, Verlander’s ERA was 3.5. In May it was 2.62. In June, Verlander dropped to a ridiculous .92. And then in July, he kept it low with a 1.99.

Sabathia is great. He has been great all season, and every indication is that he will continue to be great, dropping only one out of four games he pitches. But Verlander is on another level right now. His win percentage is lower than what he should be able to do for his remaining games. Don’t look now, but Verlander could very well achieve 23 wins this regular season, putting him with an elite group. He is the best pitcher in Major League Baseball.

For you Angels fans, Jared Weaver isn’t even in the conversation. Didn’t you see him get shelled by Ordonez and Guillen on Sunday?

On the Road

And then I came home.

I was on a train for 11 hours on Saturday. I really should’ve written this post-trip wrap-up then, but I was too busy luxuriating in my private accommodations, to which I upgraded after sitting next to a plague-ridden fellow plebeian in coach for two hours. And then I was so unbelievably tired when I finally got home. I think I needed time for everything to marinate before I wrote about it.

My trip with Jenna of All Thrifty States was a blast. It was exhausting, and long, and sweaty. I am not a camper by any stretch of the imagination, but sleeping in an air-conditioned RV was infinitely preferable to sleeping in a tent. I’d consider renting one if Rockford and I ever decided to do a long road trip.

I missed the kids all day, every day. They rewarded me for that by being jaw-droppingly nutso on Monday and yesterday. I missed Rockford, too, but I think I’m a little more accustomed to being away from him. And also I could talk to him on the phone. I talked to the kids, too, but they give phone calls about 10 percent of their attention.

I hit a thrifting wall on Day Seven, in New Orleans. (That might explain why I wasn’t crazy about the city, although I think the general steaminess and seaminess had more to do with it.) Jenna is on something like her 47th day of this. I cannot begin to imagine. The project came about after she was laid off. She wanted to find something productive to do with her unexpected (and rather unwelcome) spare time, so she turned her passion for thrifting and photography into an 18-hour-a-day job that doesn’t actually pay anything. (Seriously. That lady is on from the second she wakes up till the second she hits the pillow, driving thrifting photographing interviewing driving videotaping interviewing editing editing editing and editing.) I am so proud of her for dreaming it up and for making it happen.

Jenna will still have 12 states to visit after this trip. Anyone with a private jet, a billion airline miles and/or a guest room in Alaska or Hawaii?