Savin Hillbilly said:
I just did a search on Play Index to see where Uehara stands among relievers with at least 200 IP, a K/9 >10 and a BB/9 <1.5. According to PI, the answer is: he stands alone. There are 28 relievers with at least 200 IP and a K/9 over 10. Koji has the lowest BB/9 at 1.25. The second lowest BB/9 in the group is Sergio Romo at 1.78. Third lowest is Papelbon with 2.32.
Where Koji stands among relievers with 200+ innings since 1900:
6th in FIP
4th in FIP-
3rd in ERA-
This isn't even 2013 numbers. This is *career* numbers.
Are we looking at the most underrated pitcher in baseball history? (I mean, up until the past few weeks.)
This made me curious to just look at single seasons using roughly his current parameters. This is looking at all years between 1871 to present
IP greater than or equal to 60
WHIP less than or equal to 0.65
K/9 greater than or equal to 12
BB/9 less than or equal to 1.5
He's the only one. Which is incredible if you think of the thousands (tens of thousands?) or relief pitchers who have played the game since its beginning.
If you move the parameters back a bit to
IP greater than or equal to 60
WHIP less than or equal to 0.75
K/9 greater than or equal to 11
BB/9 less than or equal to 2
You get three total pitchers. Koji's current season. Joaquin Benoit's 2010 season where he pitched 60.1 IP with a K/9 of 11.19, a BB/9 of 1.64 and a WHIP of 0.68.
The third pitcher on the list...Koji Uehara's 2011 season where he pitched 65 innings with a K/9 of 11.7, a BB/9 of 1.25 and a WHIP of 0.73.