Justin Verlander will oppose Yu Darvish on Thursday in a much-anticipated pitching matchup — the perennial Cy Young candidate vs. the second-year strikeout phenom.
But only one of them is on the "Nasty Nine" list put together by Yahoo! Sports. It narrows down the nine pitchers in the MLB this season who have pitched at least 50 innings and have sub-2.00 ERAs. (Click through the slideshow above to see them all).
As nasty as Darvish has been this season — 6-1 with a league-leading 80 strikeouts, but a 2.73 ERA — it's not him on the list. That should tell you something about this "Nasty Nine" designation.
Is it then surprising to see another second-year Japanese import Hisashi Iwakuma on the list rather than Yu? Maybe, but the numbers — 5-1, 1.84 — prove he's having a stellar year. And Patrick Corbin? He's been great for Arizona — 6-0, 1.52 ERA — even though there's a good chance half the country doesn't even know his name.
Now let's see who can keep being this nasty.
Baseball is back. Don't miss anything.
Follow @MikeOz and @bigleaguestew, on Twitter, along with the BLS Facebook page.
No comments:
Post a Comment