When will we see a Pitching Triple Crown?
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by user Jgov05
While the Batting Triple Crown is more talked about and seemingly harder to acheive, the pitching triple crown is quite a feat in itself. Only 4 pitchers have had triple crown seasons in the past 20 years. While obviously the batting triple is rarer, it is not an easy feat to triple it up as a pitcher. You have to be a power pitcher to accumulate strikeouts, and play on a team with a consistent offense to get enough wins. Will any pitcher this year join Randy Johnson in 2002 as the only pitchers to win the crown since 2000? Here's an up-to-date look at the standings in the 3 major categories:
| Current Pitching Triple Crown Leaders As Of 10/17/06 | |||||
| Wins | Strikeouts | ERA | |||
| American League | |||||
| Johan Santana | 19 | Johan Santana | 245 | Johan Santana | 2.77 |
| Chien-Ming Wang | 19 | Jeremy Bonderman | 202 | Roy Halladay | 3.19 |
| Jon Garland | 18 | John Lackey | 190 | C.C. Sabathia | 3.22 |
| Randy Johnson | 17 | Javier Vazquez | 184 | Mike Mussina | 3.51 |
| Kenny Rogers | 17 | Curt Schilling | 183 | John Lackey | 3.56 |
| National League | |||||
| Brad Penny | 16 | Aaron Harang | 216 | Roy Oswalt | 2.98 |
| Brandon Webb | 16 | Jake Peavy | 215 | Cris Carpenter | 3.09 |
| Carlos Zambrano | 16 | John Smoltz | 211 | Brandon Webb | 3.10 |
| Derek Lowe | 16 | Carlos Zambrano | 210 | Bronson Arroyo | 3.29 |
| Aaron Harang | 16 | Brett Myers | 189 | Carlos Zambrano | 3.41 |
| Edit Statistics | |||||
American League: As you can see not many pitchers have a legit chance right now. The best chance would be Johan Santana of the Twins, who is an all-around machine. He should easily acheive his 3rd consecutive AL strikeout title this year, and after tonight's excellent start has a top-ranking ERA. In fact only rookies rank above him in ERA. Considering Francisco Liriano's injury, he will probably not rack up enough innings to qualify. Justin Verlander is also above Santana, but he is a rookie and Johan is a former Cy Young winner.
Also, Johan has proven that he can dominate down the stretch. From 2003 to 2005 he put up a 30-3 record and 1.90 ERA after the All Star break. This year (until tonight) he hasn't performed extremely well since the break with a 4.23 ERA but is still 5-0. That win total gives him 14, also top-ranking.
Besides Santana, there is really no other pitchers in the AL that can do it. Liriano looked incredible for a while, but his injury has lost him time and he is behind in everything but ERA (which he might lose the innings needed to qualify for). And all of the other top strikeout pitchers in that league have other problems going against them.
Now on to the National League. Simply put, Brandon Webb of the D-Backs has been the best pitcher in the league. He has had among the lowest ERA's in the MLB all season and has a 13-4 record. Unfortunately for these purposes, his strikeout total isn't high enough. He has 129 K's on the year, which is too few to rank him in the top 5 and way off the leader, Carlos Zambrano.
Now on to Zambrano. He leads in strikeouts by a mile with 167 and should finish the season as the leader. His ERA is too high at 3.38, and with his inconsistency you never know where it might end up. He does have 13 wins even though he plays on one of the worst teams in baseball in the Chicago Cubs. Of course, that means that he probably won't finish the season among the win leaders. Throw him out.
Among the other NL K leaders, only the Reds' Aaron Harang has enough wins to be in contention. But with a 3.66 ERA, he won't get it either.
The Verdict:
This year no National League pitcher will boast this acheivement. That's for sure.
But an AL pitcher will. I'm predicting that Santana will win the Triple Crown. His massive strikeout lead cannot be overlooked, and his win totals should remain high and his ERA low considering how he can perform in the second half. His start against the Cleveland Indians tonight was nothing but masterful, and it ended a somewhat cold streak for Johan.
But even if no one wins the triple this year, someone will in the near future. The wealth of young pitchers, including all of the great rookies and players such as Zambrano and Webb, should usher in a "golden era" of pitching dominance. Somebody, either this season or in the near future, will be good enough to join a list featuring Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, and Roger Clemens.
Date
Tue 08/15/06, 5:56 pm EST
