The past few seasons have seen a resurgence of dominating pitching in Major League Baseball. Perhaps the most obvious sign of this is the significant number of no hitters and perfect games. In the past 11 months, there have been five no hitters and, remarkably, three perfect games. In the entire history of MLB, there have only been 20 perfect games and 15% of those have occurred in the last year. The latest addition to the list is Jackalope and Phillies ace Roy Halladay who retired every Marlins hitter he faced on Saturday evening.
Halladay’s perfect game was possibly the least surprising of all those recent performances. Since moving to the National League, he has been nearly unhittable. His perfecto was his seventh victory of the season and lowered his ERA to 1.99 and WHIP to 0.988. The only person preventing him from being the leader in the Cy Young Award race is his fellow 2010 no hitter hurler, Ubaldo Jimenez. Halladay ranks second, behind Jimenez, in wins, ERA and WHIP.
Halladay is part of a very impressive pitching staff which continues to be the DTBL’s best. Unfortunately for the Jackalope, the Darkhorses recently regained their familiar spot on top of the league standings. Through Sunday, the Darkhorses held a two point lead on the Jackalope, with the Naturals and Kings in close striking distance as well.
The no hitters and perfect games are only one sign of a pitching resurgence in baseball. You don’t have to look any further than the DTBL team stats to see more evidence. All but two teams have ERAs below 4.00. On the flip side, only two teams have batting averages over .280, which used to be a middle of the pack figure. If the current trend continues, this figures to be the lowest cumulative league batting average in DTBL history and the lowest ERA/WHIP numbers since the league expanded to ten teams.
As thrilling as having one of your pitchers throw a perfect game must be, I think it would be fair to say that was not the highlight of Jay’s weekend. On behalf of the league, I’d like to give Jay a huge congratulations on his marriage to Julie. Jay is the first of two DTBL members who will be getting married this summer. Dom and Ashley’s wedding is on the 4th of July weekend. I think it is kind of interesting and appropriate that our league’s two veterans are getting married on two holiday weekends where we, as Americans, celebrate our freedom and honor those who have served to protect our country. So a big thanks, congratulations, and best wishes to Jay and Dom!
I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!