Strasburg beyond filthy

I’m now re-arranging my life in order to see Stephen Strasburg of the Washington Nationals on television every fifth day. I don’t find this to be weird. I find this to be an expectation for any sports fan. Any time one has a chance to see Strasburg, one needs to clear his or her schedule to see his 95 or so pitches.

Strasburg has the best stuff I’ve ever seen out of any pitcher in my years of watching baseball, and I’m fairly certain that he already possesses the best stuff of any pitcher in the league right now. He’s must-see television in order to view his unreal talent and polish at such a young age. 

Strasburg’s second start of his big league career wasn’t the 14-strikeout masterpiece he had in his debut, but he still struck out eight in 5.1 innings and only allowed two hits against the the Cleveland Indians.

One of those two hits was a Travis Hafner line drive home run down the right field line, on what appeared to be a low-90′s changeup at the knees in the middle of the plate. It was very similar to the pitch that Strasburg surrendered a homer against Delwyn Young of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Strasburg’s stuff in his debut is the best stuff I’ve ever seen in a single game, with a two-seam and four-seam fastball spotted all across the strike zone at 95-100 miles-per-hour to go along with with a power curveball that has ridiculous bite to it. Also present was a sharp low-90′s changeup that dipped as it entered the strike zone.

His stuff didn’t have as much bite to it as it did last Tuesday, but Strasburg with less than his ideal stuff is still better than every other pitcher’s stuff save for maybe Ubaldo Jimenez and Josh Johnson. Most of Strasburg’s issues had to do with his control, especially on the outside corner to left-handed hitters. Strasburg walked five in his outing after walking none in his debut.

Some of his control issues seemed to stem from a shoddy mound in Cleveland, which caused Strasburg slipped on the mound on a 3-2 pitch, resulting in a walk. The mound required constant attention from the grounds crew throughout the game, and Strasburg was visibly not pleased with the mound.

Despite the mound issues and the walks, Strasburg still struck out eight and gave up only two hits. If he had better control, he saves his pitch count a bit and maybe he comes close to duplicating his debut. Strasburg was dominating at times in his second start and was missing a ton of bats.

In his two starts combined (12.1 innings pitched), Strasburg has given up three runs, all earned, for a 2.19 ERA, much of which he can credit to his good buddy Drew Storen, who inherited Strasburg’s bases loaded, one out situation in the sixth inning in Cleveland and got out of it with no damage. Strasburg’s FIP stands at a pretty ridiculous 2.87 thanks to his strikeout ability.

Strasburg has struck out 22 batters (16.05 batters per nine innings) and amassed a straight up filthy contact percentage of 57.5%, which means 42.5% of the swings that Strasburg has induced have been swings and misses. Further, 15.3% of the pitches Strasburg has thrown have resulted in swings and misses, which is far beyond filthy.

Strasburg has only given up six hits and  five walks to leave his WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) at 0.89 and his walks per nine innings at 3.65. I’m not a huge fan of WHIP because a home run counts the same as a swinging bunt, but 0.89 is nasty under any circumstances.

62.o% of Strasburg’s pitches in his two starts have been fastballs, 26.1% curveballs, and 12.0% changeups.

Strasburg does have a very low .238 BABIP (batting average on balls in play), which would seem to indicate that Strasburg has fallen into good luck once the ball is in play, but I wouldn’t be looking at Strasburg regressing to the league average quite yet. After all, it’s just two starts. And with the amount of meek swings Strasburg has induced, does BABIP even apply to him like any other pitcher? Strasburg’s hitters, even when they put the bat on the ball, are producing very weak swings and results.

Besides, since when does Strasburg even fit into any league average? BABIP averages don’t apply to superhumans like Stephen Strasburg. When extra-terrestrials invade the earth, the only person that will be able to control them is Stephen Strasburg.

All statistics are courtesy of FanGraphs.