Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 27, 2006
Rare Breed

Mark Buehrle picked up a loss last night as the Seattle Mariners defeated the White Sox 5-1. Buehrle allowed four runs over seven innings, but the most interesting thing about the game is that Mark did not strike out a batter. Buehrle's never been a high strikeout hurler, but he always had a reasonable number of Ks. This season, his K per 9 stands at 3.08 with 12 whiffs in 35 innings.

This type of low strikeout pitcher pretty much vanished from baseball after the 1994 season. Between 1995 and 2002, no pitcher with 162 IP struck batters out at a rate less than 3.1 per 9. In 2003, Nate Cornejo of the Tigers managed the feat, but was out of baseball after the 2004 season. In 2004, Kirk Rueter did the same, and he's not around anymore, either.

However, this used to be quite common. There were 48 such seasons in the 1970s, 31 in the 1980s, 5 in the 1990s, and only two so far in the aughties. In each decade, however, the pitchers with the low K rates have higher ERAs than the pitchers with K per 9 above 3.1. Buehrle is making the most of the White Sox defense. But if that defense should crack, I suspect his ERA will start ballooning.

ERA, 162 IP
DecadeK < 3.1 per 9K >= 3.1 per 9
20004.704.10
19904.273.90
19803.963.67
19703.603.44
19603.933.29
19503.783.61
19403.503.30
19304.183.78
19203.763.62
19102.882.67
19002.912.52

It's always better to have pitchers with higher strikeout rates.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:54 AM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I'd rather have Mark Buehrle than Kerry Wood. Shouldn't how few people he walks factor in?

Posted by: Nick Schaefer at April 28, 2006 02:40 AM

I'm wondering if this is to some extent a market response to the huge increase in power and run-scoring since the mid 90s. In the 70s and 80s, you had a lot of "sinker/slider" guys who pitched to contact and didn't strike out a ton of hitters, but they didn't need to because most of the guys they were facing weren't threats to hit the ball out. It seems like the guys who have been successful with pretty low K rates in the last 10 years (though I'm pulling this off the top of my head) are extreme groundball pitchers.

Cornejo, by the way, is out of baseball more because of injury than ineffectiveness (though he was never terribly effective).

Posted by: David Dean at April 29, 2006 05:10 PM
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