Mets’ Jacob deGrom Strikes Out 14, Hits Home Run

New York Mets righthander Jacob deGrom won the National League Cy Young Award last season, and if his first two starts of 2019 are any indication, he’s moved seamlessly into this season.

In his first start of the year in the Mets’ opener on March 28th, deGrom pitched six shutout innings, allowed five hits, struck out 10, and walked one in New York’s 2-0 win over the Washington Nationals. Then in his second start, he pitched 7 shutout innings, allowed three hits, struck out a career high 14, and walked one in a 6-4 win over the Miami Marlins. DeGrom also hit a solo home run in the third inning. The New York bullpen tried hard to blow it, allowing four Miami runs in the ninth, but the Mets pulled it out.

So after two games, deGrom is 2-0 with an ERA of 0.00, 24 strikeouts and two walks, and a WHIP of 0.77. Opposing batters are hitting .174 against him. Last season, deGrom had a major league leading 1.70 ERA in 32 starts, and 269 strikeouts in 217 innings; he walked just 46 hitters and allowed 10 homers and 152 hits. However, the Mets offense failed to support deGrom, or any of the pitchers for that matter, as New York was in the bottom half or quarter of the league in most offensive categories, including tied for last in batting average. This contributed to deGrom’s won lost record of just 10-9, but with intense lobbying by his supporters, deGrom won the Cy Young Award anyway.

There’s no doubt deGrom had a great season, and his team’s poor offense contributed greatly to his rather average won lost record. There is a current trend among statistics aficionados that the won loss record of a pitcher is of no value, since a victory or loss is a team concept, and they point to deGrom as an example. The way pitchers are used these days, with few complete games (deGrom had one last year) and extensive use of bullpen specialists, helps to support this. A poor or mediocre bullpen paired with a poor or mediocre offense will crash a won lost record for a starting pitcher. The Mets were 77-85 in 2018, finishing in 4th place in the NL East.

Although it was a different era, allow us to point out another year when a pitcher had an outstanding season while playing on a bad team but still had a great won lost record. In 1972, the Philadelphia Phillies were bad. Really bad. The Phillies finished in last place in the NL East, with a record of 59-97. In the at that time 12 team National League, they were 11th in runs scores, on base percentage, and stolen bases; and ninth in batting average, OPS, slugging percentage, home runs, and hits. The pitching wasn’t too good either, except for one guy, lefthander Steve Carlton.  In that era of four man pitching rotations, Carlton started 41 games and was 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA, with 310 strikeouts in 346 1/3 innings pitched, and 30 complete games. Carlton was the winning pitcher in 46% of his club’s victories. The three other Phillies pitchers with the most starts had records of 2-15 with a 4.26 ERA, 4-14 with a 5.09, and 4-10 with a 4.36. Carlton’s dominant season earned him the Cy Young Award, and he was fifth in the voting for the NL Most Valuable Player, as was deGrom last season. Carlton went on to win three more Cy Youngs, and had a career record of 329-244 with a 3.22 ERA and 4136 strikeouts. He was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot in 1994.