Bats & Balls Notebook
Nola’s Nasty Numbers
Will he be the fifth Phillies pitcher to win a Cy Young Award?
“He” is Aaron Nola, one of the three finalists for the National League honor, joining the Mets’ Jacob deGrom and the Nationals’ Max Scherzer.
Aaron’s traditional numbers speak for themselves: 33 starts (NL 2nd), 17–6 record (NL 4th in W), 2.37 ERA (NL 2nd), 212.3 innings (NL 3rd), 224 strikeouts (NL 5th), 0.975 WHIP. Enemy hitters batted a measly .197.
From the somewhat confusing world of metrics: 10.5 WAR (#1 among ALL pitchers), 175 Adjusted ERA+ (NL 2nd), 45.70 Base-out runs saved (NL 2nd), 42 Adjusted Runs Saved (NL 2nd), 5.0 WPA (NL 2nd), 4.7 Adjusted pitching wins (NL 2nd), 5.0 Base-out wins saved (NL 2nd) and 3.01 FIP (NL 4th). Thanks to baseball-reference.com.
Plus, in the new world of third-time-through-the-order, the 25-year-old allowed a .540 OPS to the 222 batters he faced for the third time in a game. Only Corey Kluber (.491, 219 batters, 2017) has a lower OPS in the past three years.
Then, here are some stunning numbers in franchise history:
**224 strikeouts are second-most by a Phillies pitcher 25 or younger, Grover Cleveland Alexander, 227 way back in 1911.
**Only three other Phillies RHPs have had 224+ strikeouts in a season, Jim Bunning (3x); Alexander and Curt Schilling (2x).
**His 0.975 WHIP is the fourth-lowest ever by a qualifying Phillies pitcher behind Alexander (0.84 in 1915 and 0.96 in 1916) and Charlie Buffington (0.96 in 1888).
**Over the last 50 years only two other Phillies pitchers had an ERA lower than Aaron’s 2.37, 2.35 for Roy Halladay (2011) and 2.35 for Curt Schilling (1992).
“It was a jaw-dropping season,” exclaimed Gabe Kapler.
Winner will be announced at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 14, on the MLB Network.
Previous four Phillies winners include Steve Carlton (1972, 1977, 1980, 1982), John Denny (1983), Steve Bedrosian (1987) and Roy Halladay (2010).
Should Nola win, he would be the first home-grown Phillies hurler. Now, that’s jaw-breaking.
