| | Five years ago, I wrote an article for the "STATS Baseball Scoreboard 1995," the title of which was "How Amazing was Saberhagen?"
That article was inspired by Bret Saberhagen's 1994 season. And yes, it was amazing. He went 14-4 with a 2.77 ERA, but that wasn't what really impressed us. No, the truly stupendous thing was Saberhagen's strikeout-to-walk ratio. He only walked 13 hitters -- yes, he had more wins than walks -- while strikeout out 143. Those 143 K's and 13 walks gave him an 11.0-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, easily the best this century for a pitcher with at least 150 innings.
Well, in 1999 he's at it again.
No, Saberhagen's strikeout-to-walk ratio, while excellent, is not historical. He's walked merely 10 hitters, but has "only" 73 strikeouts to go with those 10 walks. Yes, a 7.3-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio is excellent, but there have been better.
But consider this: going into Friday's start against Baltimore, Saberhagen's record is 10-5, which means that, once again, he's got a chance to finish with more victories than walks. How often does that happen? Well, not very often. And since 1920, it only happens when Bret Saberhagen is on the job. And that's what is really amazing about Saberhagen. These things he does, nobody else has done them in a long, long time.
As many wins as walks? Saberhagen's got a chance to do that twice in the 1990s, and nobody else has done it since 1919. Here are the six pitcher-seasons this century that have included at least 10 victories, and at least as many victories as walks:
Innings Wins Walks
Deacon Phillippe, 1910 122 14 9
Christy Mathewson, 1913 306 25 21
Christy Mathewson, 1914 312 24 23
Slim Sallee, 1919 228 21 20
Bret Saberhagen, 1994 177 14 13
Bret Saberhagen, 1999 110 10 10
So is Saberhagen the greatest control pitcher of his era? Depends on how you define "control pitcher." If you look at walks per nine innings, Saberhagen ranks second among active or recently-active pitchers.
W IP W/9
Bob Tewksbury 292 1807 1.45
Bret Saberhagen 470 2539 1.67
Shane Reynolds 248 1224 1.82
And if we look at strikeout-to-walk ratio, another fine measure of control, Saberhagen is No. 3, after getting passed by his teammate this season.
K W K/W
Shane Reynolds 1062 248 4.28
Pedro Martinez 1521 410 3.71
Bret Saberhagen 1697 470 3.61
Based on all this, one might well argue that Shane Reynolds, and not Bret Saberhagen, ranks as the premier control pitcher of this era, but it depends on how much weight you give to strikeouts. There's no question about one thing, though. When Saberhagen is at his best, he's as accurate a pitcher as ever lived. And while it's been a decade since Saberhagen's last Cy Young, even at 35 he's still a wonderful pitcher when healthy enough to take the mound.
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