High K/9 pitchers you wouldn't expect

[mweir145]

Fan Graphs

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?p ... 08&month=0

My favourite stats site.

[interchange]

Erik Bedard. Oh wait, you're talking about this year.

[stumpak]

One other guy is Grienke, who amazingly is keeping his K rate pretty close to what it was last year when pitched mostly out of the pen.

[Field]

Not exactly a hidden gem...but what's up with Roy Halladay?

He's gone from a 5.55 K/9 last season (6.32 K/9 career) to a 7.41 K/9 this season. And he's actually walking signficantly less too. His fastball velocity has also jumped up 1.7 MPH to 2005 levels, and his curveball is sharper than it's ever been.

He's seemingly become a better pitcher than he has at any point in his career at the age of 31 (his FIP is 2.89...the previous best for a full season was 2.97 in 2002).

It makes me suspect that Doc was fighting injuries over the last two years (as I had suspected for a while), and is now healthy again. I did think he was in the decline heading into the '08 season, but it appears that is not the case at all.

I sure wish there were some better reports on Hallday coming out of preseason. I specifically avoided him due to his declining K rate. He was going Roy Oswalt on us, but I guess not......

[kab21]

Sean Gallagher had a nice K rate in the minors and just moved into a pitcher heaven.

[freeling_prideful]

Sean Gallagher had a nice K rate in the minors and just moved into a pitcher heaven.

Good point. He's not a junkballer either, he throws a legit 90-94 mph fastball and a curveball with good movement (though inconsistent command).

[willy-t]

Im keeping tabs of Joel Hanrahan who is in relief for nats at the moment, he has about 10K/9. Had a couple of nice starts last year, he always looks to have nice stuff when I see him. Also would agree with Bronson Arroyo

[mweir145]

Not exactly a hidden gem...but what's up with Roy Halladay?

He's gone from a 5.55 K/9 last season (6.32 K/9 career) to a 7.41 K/9 this season. And he's actually walking signficantly less too. His fastball velocity has also jumped up 1.7 MPH to 2005 levels, and his curveball is sharper than it's ever been.

He's seemingly become a better pitcher than he has at any point in his career at the age of 31 (his FIP is 2.89...the previous best for a full season was 2.97 in 2002).

It makes me suspect that Doc was fighting injuries over the last two years (as I had suspected for a while), and is now healthy again. I did think he was in the decline heading into the '08 season, but it appears that is not the case at all.

I sure wish there were some better reports on Hallday coming out of preseason. I specifically avoided him due to his declining K rate. He was going Roy Oswalt on us, but I guess not......

I can't say I saw it coming.

My only explanation was that he wasn't entirely healthy last year.