A Thread for Starting Pitchers That Are Jacob deGrom

or the entire thing. whatever.

Well I guess I jinxed that.

his ERA is now 1.03 as of the end of the first!

*drudge sirens*

how's his rpms looking

small sample so far, but up from his season average, and higher velo as well

https://i.imgur.com/zTU9orR.png

ah so he's just regular bad now

it was a good career

he could have been a hall of famer

comeback player of the year

The thing I love about deGrom is how even when he doesn't have his best stuff he figures things out. So many games where he gives up 1-2 runs in the 1st or 2nd inning on 20+ pitches, then he starts bearing down and you look up and its the 6th and he's thrown 85 pitches and no one else even got on.

― Vin Jawn (PBKR), Wednesday, June 2, 2021 8:51 PM (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

he could have been a hall of famer

Meant as a joke, I know, but--and I do realize how insane this sounds--it really does feel like his HOF status is a precarious house of cards where one awful start could matter. I wrote about that last week:

http://phildellio.tripod.com/

Short version: an awful start would deny him any chance at the the record, which--in tandem with falling short of the qualifying IP--could cost him a third Cy, which then, down the road, could leave his HOF status on the fence.

His career is just so strange in terms of historical precedent.

I think his HOF chances are pretty safe. He can be mediocre for the next 4 years and I think he’d still be a shoe in. But it’s not like he’s in any sort of decline right now.

i think to get in he'll have to have either keep up for a few more years (better than mediocre, not necessarily world-beating) and/or have some sort of Legendary Moment near the end

if puts up a 4.08 ERA from 2022-25, in other words, the mystique will be gone. people forget quickly

To me it comes down to two things: Cys and how much the value of wins has been discounted (or will have been discounted by the time he's eligible) compared to, say, 20 years ago--50%? 70% completely? One good thing is that his lack of run support has probably been scrutinized and publicized more than any pitcher ever. Don't think I'd go so far as "pretty safe," not yet.

https://i.imgur.com/Chdcl9L.png👍

deGrom is pretty good but he's no Dutch Leonard

looking at Sanata as a possible comp for falling short of the hall – I guess clemenza might have a point.
both won two Cy youngs, 4 all star appearances (assuming Degrom this year). Sanata had a few more years in before losing 2011 to injury and only getting just one so-so year in after that; so his counting stats look a better (139 vs 77 wins, 1988 vs 1485 strikeouts 51 WAR vs 41). But Degrom has a significant edge in ERA (2.50 vs 3.20), ERA+ (157 vs 136), FIP (2.63 vs 3.44), SO/W ( 5.07 vs 3.51)the list goes on.
so i guess if he gets the Cy this year, it could cement him as a HoF no matter what happens after... more Koufax than Sanata at that point. but it's not like a sudden end to his career is eminent or anything.
i'm also now curious what the most dominant season a non-HOF starter has had (not counting pre-deadball).

a few quick results i got were Clemens in 97 (tho obvious a hall of fame calibre pitcher but not in for other reasons, currently) plus Wilbur Woods AND Vida Blue in '71

johan santana, right?

I wasn't watching much baseball during his prime years, so i had to look it up to make sure myself

definitely not Ervin!

Not sure how they did in WAR without checking, but McLain and Tiant in '68, Dean Chance in '64, Gooden in '85, and Guidry in '78 all come to mind.

Lolich was pretty great in '71 too.

Jacob DeGrom, former Hall of Fame contender, current fading superstar with 2 ER today and a 1.08 ERA

How the mighty have fallen.

To slightly less mighty, but still pretty mighty.

Second fewest starts (198) after Darvish (197) to 1,500 strikeouts.

https://i.imgur.com/EDLi8QP.png

no idea why they chose those for comparison, but it's been the exact same layout for over a month now. it's true that MLB just doesn't generally understand what their own fans like to see

Do you mean the ERA chart or the Darvish comparison? The latter seems meaningless to me, especially when they call it "fastest to 1500 strikeouts," but Leonard (official record, Negro League mark aside), Gibson (modern-day record), and Gooden (best since 1968) make sense, no?

to me, the ERA comparison is useless for the same reason of "fastest to 1500 strikeouts" - they were all playing in different eras

but also, just from a PR/stats perspective, i'd guess only a small portion of the fans would intuitively understand why the players in the chart above were chosen (to represent different eras and run-scoring environment). and even then...to keep the same little stat template up for like 6 weeks when it only takes 20 minutes to come up with something different and interesting? eh, what do i know. the pandemic has been hard for everyone, including mlb.com data visualizers

To clarify, I thought the "fastest to 1500" was useless because they used starts rather than age (or, at the very least, IP). Darvish and deGrom are the same era, though.

They could use some parenthetical explanations on the ERA chart, for sure.

I think the record he's actually vying for is an the unofficial, esoteric Greatest Injury-Riddled Season Ever record.

https://www.mlb.com/news/jacob-degrom-right-forearm-tightness

On the shelf two more weeks.

Making his first major league start in 13 months tonight. With some first inning adrenaline, his fastball hit 102 MPH. Doesn’t look like he is overthrowing so far.

Looks like he pitched very well tonight.

Either finished for the day or one more inning, but what a game: 5 perfect innings, 10 K.

Retired the first 17! Then Swanson hit a homrerun :/

I caught his last two batters--didn't realize the Jays network had switched over to the Mets game. He came real close to 6 perfect innings with 13 strikeouts.

Kind of relieved they didn’t have to take him while he was throwing a perfect game though. He was at a limit of around 75 pitches, so next time he will get a chance to go deeper.

6 shutout innings tonight, 10 Ks. So great to watch him pitch again.

Small sample size, I know, but: deGrom went into yesterday's start with a 37-1 K/BB ratio. After striking out nine and walking one, his ratio has plummeted to 23-1.

Pedro 1999: 213.1 IP, 23-4, 2.07, 234 ERA+, 1.39 FIP, 0.923 WHIP, 8.46 K/BB, 9.8 bWAR

Pedro 2000: 217.0 IP, 18-6, 1.74, 291 ERA+, 2.17 FIP, 0.737 WHIP, 8.88 K/BB, 11.7 bWAR

DeGrom 2020-22: 203.1 IP, 16-5, 1.64, 250 ERA+, 1.61 FIP, 0.689 WHIP, 9.48 K/BB, 9.0 bWAR

Staying healthy and playing means everything, of course.

10 Ks through four innings so far

13 Ks today, but Cruz got the better of him.

https://i.imgur.com/ESUg3c4.png

“Days since injury” conspicuously missing. Heroes: none is extremely funny though.

i guess there's the small chance he was trying to be funny? i don't know much at all about degrom the person or personality. but i agree, hero "none" is good stuff

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qY6ZaJK_ARc/maxresdefault.jpg

i want to believe he drew the cactus and sun and baseball

“I fully anticipate making my next start”: The New Jacob Degrom Thread

I was sure after they pulled him he was gonna be out for at least a month

Woop