BEST POWER ARMS AVERAGE MORE STRIKEOUTS THAN INNINGS PITCHED
PLUS: STRUGGLING THROUGH A SUBPAR BROADCAST BY TBS TUESDAY
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
The Seattle Mariners entered play Friday without consecutive wins this season but with two pitchers named Luis Castillo . . .
Kudos to Fredi Gonzalez, affable and bi-lingual former manager of the Braves and Marlins, for his appointment as one of several assistant managers to Mark deRosa on Team USA in the 2026 World Baseball Classic . . .
Phillies southpaw Jesus Luzardo is the only major-leaguer to be born in Peru . . .
White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf may be 89 but says he doesn’t plan to sell . . .
Across town, a Canadian goose — probably nicknamed Gossage — helped itself to a free front-row seat in the Wrigley Field bleachers, forcing the Cubs to close it to fans:
Leading Off
Meet The Pitchers With The Most K’s Per 9 Innings
By Dan Schlossberg
Strikeouts are gold for pitchers — especially those with the highest ratios of whiffs to innings pitched.
Entering the 2025 season, four active pitchers top the lifetime list for most strikeouts per nine innings pitched. And the fifth name, now on the injured list, is also expected back this season.
Not surprisingly, all five have won a Cy Young Award at least once.
Blake Snell, who has won the trophy in both leagues, heads the list at 11.2267. Hot on his heals is fellow lefty Chris Sale, at 11.0941.
They’re followed by Robbie Ray (11.0689), Jacob deGrom (10.9685), and Max Scherzer (10.6543).
Other current pitchers in the Top 10 are Yu Darvish, ranked seventh at 10.5879, and Gerrit Cole, currently recovering from Tommy John elbow surgery, whose 10.3680 ranks 10th.
The presence of so many contemporary pitchers is hardly surprising; managers and pitching coaches prize velocity — power over precision — and place their priorities with pitchers who can throw hard.
So, nu, where are Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan, reputed to own the fastest fastballs of their era?
The two Hall of Famers rank 6th and 20th, respectively, with 10.6098 for the towering Johnson and 9.5481 for Ryan, the career leader in both strikeouts (5,714) and no-hitters (7).
Even Sandy Koufax, whom some consider the best southpaw in baseball history, stands well down the list. He averaged 9.2665 strikeouts per nine inning, 26th on this lifetime list and highly surprising for a pitcher who won four strikeout crowns and fanned a record 382 men in a single season before Ryan recorded one more.
Pedro Martinez, known for recording high numbers of strikeouts, stands only 11th. He fanned an average of 10.0398 men per nine innings during his 18-year career.
Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander, future Hall of Famers to be sure, rank 16th and 34th, respectively, a fact made all the more amazing because Nick Pivetta (No. 13) is ahead of Kershaw and Rich Hill (No. 29) outranks Verlander. So does Oliver Perez for that matter; he’s No. 22 at 9.4933.
As is the case with most baseball statistics, these stats matter most when it comes to contract negotiations — at least for the contemporary arms near the top.
They also matter, of course, when those pitchers need to escape in-game jams and have to rely on their ability to get big strikeouts in key situations.
Only those with 1,000+ innings pitched were considered, which explains why Spencer Strider isn’t included yet. He led both leagues with 281 strikeouts in 2023 and could approach that number again if his surgically-repaired right elbow responds to game conditions, including frequent use of his newly-added curveball.
At the very least, the whiffs-per-nine list will stoke controversy, especially when it comes to arguments over the best pitchers in the game.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ covers baseball for forbes.com, Memories & Dreams, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Sports Collectors Digest, and other outlets. He’s also the author of 43 baseball books, including two Hank Aaron biographies. Contact him by emailing ballauthor@gmail.com.
Cleaning Up
TBS Announcers Ruin Braves-Phils Game
By Dan Schlossberg
Three teams played in the TBS broadcast of the Phillies-Braves game Tuesday: Philadelphia, Atlanta, and a very confused bunch of so-called broadcasters.
Suffice to say the TBS crew not only did not do its homework but made more errors than the two teams they were covering.
For example, they reported that Brian Snitker was in his 48th year in the Braves’ organization. Actually, it’s his 49th, since the Atlanta manager mentioned just a day earlier that “it would be cool” to return next year because it would be his 50th.
They incorrectly reported that the Braves lost season series to both the Mets and Phillies in 2024 when the opposite was true.
They reported multiple times that former National League MVP Ronald Acuña, Jr. was “months away” from returning when they should have said “weeks away.”
They neglected to discuss — or even mention — the impact of the Braves losing Jurickson Profar to an 80-game PEDs suspension.
Nor did they refer to the checkered medical history of Atlanta starter Chris Sale, who had years of injuries and ailments before blossoming into a Cy Young Award winner last year but has now made three bad starts in succession at age 36.
Ron Darling, supposedly a Yale product, referred to “first basemens,” which is not actually a word.
When giving a late-inning recap of the scoring, they overlooked an Ozzie Albies double that came early in the game.
Alex Foust, Darling & Co. needed someone in the booth to correct their multiple errors of omission and commission — and to supply them with complete and proper paperwork before and during their broadcast.
Because they didn’t have such support, Ted Turner’s old SuperStation suffered through a sloppy performance compounded by the presence of three former players on its post-game show.
I’m not a fan of so-called “national” broadcasts anyway, since these occasional announcers just don’t know the teams they are covering as well as a “local” broadcaster would.
For viewers hoping to learn something about the game, that’s a shame.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is the author of Hank Aaron biographies 50 years apart plus more than 40 other baseball books. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: More Money For First Basemen
From 2012 to 2014, four different first basemen (Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Joey Votto and Prince Fielder) inked deals of more than $200 million. But none signed a deal that large over the next decade, with Matt Olson’s eight-year, $168 million extension with Atlanta the largest guarantee over that span. (Freddie Freeman’s six-year, heavily-deferred $162 million Dodgers deal was the largest in free agency) . . .
Vlad Guerrero Jr.’s 14-year, $500 million extension not only re-sets the standard but includes the second-largest AAV for a first baseman — behind only Cabrera’s eight-year extension with the Tigers . . .
It also creates a likely windfall for Pete Alonso if the Mets first baseman, as expected, opts out of his two-year, $54 million deal after this season . . .
A hot start by Alonso helps his case, though he’s four years older than Guerrero, Jr. and not as good an all-around player . . .
Anthony Rizzo, another first baseman, couldn’t even find a home in the latest free-agent market, while aging Paul Goldschmidt, a former MVP, had to take a pay cut to sign even a one-year contract.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles the Monday issue with Dan Freedman [dfreedman@lionsgate.com] editing Tuesday and Jeff Kallman [easyace1955@outlook.com] at the helm Wednesday and Thursday. Original editor Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com], does the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Former editor Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] is now co-director [with Benjamin Chase and Jonathan Becker] of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, which publishes this newsletter and the annual ACTA book of the same name. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HtP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.