Everybody has an opinion on who the best starter in Major League Baseball is, but it's almost impossible to say that anybody has been better than Philadelphia Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sanchez. Sanchez, who has done nothing but throw the baseball at a ridiculous level throughout the season, has probably been just as good as anybody outside of Jacob Misiorowski.
Misiorowski has been absolutely dominant throughout his starts this year, striking out 138 hitters in 93.0 innings. At the same time, while his ERA is lower than Sanchez's, and he has more strikeouts, it's not crazy to say that Sanchez has been just as good, if not better at times. Sanchez has thrown 105.0 innings, striking out 121 hitters and walking just 20.
What's crazy is that he's actually in some elite company, and not only does history say that he's going to win the Cy Young Award, but history says that he might actually be on a trajectory to be an all-time great.
“Through 16 starts this season, Sánchez has a 1.80 ERA and 121 strikeouts over 105 innings. Only 10 other pitchers in MLB history have had an ERA of 1.80 or better and 120-plus strikeouts over at least 105 innings through their first 16 starts of a season...
“As if that list wasn't impressive enough, now consider the fact that Sánchez has walked only 20 batters this season. The only pitchers from that list to also have fewer than even 25 walks are Verlander, Kershaw and Martínez. So to recap, the only pitchers in MLB history to match Sánchez's ERA, strikeouts, walks and innings total through the first 16 starts of a season are a first-ballot Hall of Famer (Martínez) and two surefire Hall of Famers (Verlander and Kershaw),” MLB.com wrote.
When we start hearing guys like Pedro Martinez, Justin Verlander, and Clayton Kershaw mentioned, it's typically a good sign that things are going very well. Only 29 years old, there's also reason to believe that Sanchez is only going to get better.
I'm not sure if he can continue on this trajectory, as it's absolutely ridiculous to ask a starter to do so, but he had a 2.50 ERA a year ago and struck out 212 hitters in 202.0 innings. If that's the type of production we're going to see in the future, this is a guy that's going to go down as one of the best we've ever seen, and that's putting it lightly.
