Spencer Strider is back on the mound for the first time in 339 days and he looks absolutely MAGNIFICENT.
That’s awesome news for baseball fans everywhere and also a very good opportunity to remind you guys that I’m bizarrely a huge Spencer Strider fan – largely because he oozes baseball history and that’s so rare in modern starting pitching.
Some other notables:
- Fastest guy to 100 strikeouts
- Fastest guy to 200 strikeouts
- Fastest guy to 300 strikeouts
- Fastest guy to 400 strikeouts
- One of highest K/9 rates in history
- One of lowest batting average against in history
- Unbelievable mustache to start his career transitioned to a solid beard during rehab
- Unbelievable/borderline mutated quadriceps
- One of my favorite underdog/bulldog mentalities in the game
Spend a little bit of time researching Spencer Strider and you will quickly learn that he’s fuckin awesome. So much that you don’t have to be a Braves fan to appreciate his body of work, and now he’s finally back on the mound looking elite.
As a Cubs fan, I think Spencer Strider is the perfect example of what’s missing from our rotation. And while that’s easy and obvious to say, my broader point is more about having a power righty that can rack up a lot of strikeouts vs. a hall of fame caliber talent.
But that’s also a unique part of the Cubs roster. The entire starting staff is predicated on pitching to contact and creating weak outs efficiently. That’s why you put an emphasis on gold-glove level defense, especially up the middle of the field.
What I can’t figure out is how much this strategy ties to rule changes and modern strategy. My hunch is that it’s intimately involved in the way Jed built the team. Either as an intentional strategy from the ground up, or an intentional strategy based on the roster he inherited. But my understand from experience is that Jed Hoyer has built this staff and defense on purpose because he thinks it’s a unique differentiator compared to the rest of the league trend on strikeouts at the expense of higher pitch counts.
There’s definitely something bigger going on with the Cubs pitching/run prevention strategy.
The strongest argument I can make is a link between offense and defensive rhythm. That there’s some connectivity between an active defense and an active lineup. And that a pitching staff that keeps the ball in play is more likely to get better run support.
That’s a bold argument but I think it’s valid with a pitch clock. I really think there’s a causal-benefit to getting the defense off the field and back in the dugout with as few as pitches as possible. And I think if you do that enough over an entire season, the lineup responds better simply because it’s a better environment to play the game.
That’s why I think walks and long-innings can completely kill a team for more reasons than just a crooked number in the middle of a game. It quite literally sucks the life out of the lineup and can easily carry over into a weekend series.
But if that’s the case, then I think the opposite applies for scoreless innings at 13 pitches or less. There just has to be positive momentum that swings the other way when you’re getting 3 quick outs.
And while I concede I could be overreacting to a simple concept, I think it’s important to note that the 2024 Cubs were 23-6 in Shota Imanaga starts and 60-73 in all the rest. Certainly he was very good last year but my broader point is Shota’s style of pitching is better for a lineup than if he were a max-effort, high-WHIP strikeout pitcher.
That’s the point and I think Jed Hoyer is trying to make it for me. So keep an eye on that conversation as the year progresses and of course, hope & pray we don’t see Spencer Strider at all this year.
He looks magnificent.
PS – Yes I will almost always find a way to make something about the Chicago Cubs. I think it’s a conversational strength but am often reminded by my wife that it’s a problem. So be it.