Chris Sale Strikes Hitters Out At An Historic Rate

Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

Through two starts this season, Chris Sale is striking out 9.0 hitters per nine innings, or one per inning. For most starting pitchers, that's a very good number.

For Chris Sale, though, it's below average.

In fact, if Sale were to maintain the same pace all season, the 9.0 K/9 would be tied for the lowest in his career, as that's the same rate he struck out hitters back in 2012, his first season as a starting pitcher. That number would jump up to 9.5 in 2013, 10.8 in 2014, and it peaked at an insane 11.8 in 2015, which led baseball last season.

Over his career Sale has a K/9 of 10.28, which is really good.

In fact, a quick trip to Baseball Reference shows that it's historically good. One of the best of all time.

I looked up the numbers of American League pitchers who have made at least 100 career American League starts. I chose these parameters because 100 starts is a nice bench number, and because including National League starts would skew the numbers a little bit.

National League pitchers get to face pitchers, after all, while American League starters are dealing with designated hitters multiple times per start.

So where did Sale rank?

Rk	Player	SO9	GS	From	To	Age
1	Pedro Martinez	10.95	201	1998	2004	26-32
2	Chris Sale	10.28	118	2010	2016	21-27
3	Randy Johnson	10.09	333	1989	2006	25-42
4	Nolan Ryan	9.99	417	1972	1993	25-46
5	Max Scherzer	9.60	161	2010	2014	25-29
6	Johan Santana	9.50	175	2000	2007	21-28
7	Corey Kluber	9.48	103	2011	2016	25-30
8	Brandon Morrow	9.36	108	2007	2014	22-29
9	Francisco Liriano	9.06	141	2005	2012	21-28
10	Sam McDowell	9.05	317	1961	1974	18-31

Only second all time, behind some guy named Pedro Martinez, and ahead of stiffs like Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan.

Since K/9 numbers can be a bit misleading -- a pitcher could conceivably allow 3 hits per inning while getting three strikeouts -- I also looked up the K rate numbers (percentage of batters faced struck out) and not much changes.

Rk	Player	K%	GS	From	To	Age
1	Pedro Martinez	30.6%	201	1998	2004	26-32
2	Chris Sale	28.4%	118	2010	2016	21-27
3	Randy Johnson	26.8%	333	1989	2006	25-42
4	Nolan Ryan	26.6%	417	1972	1993	25-46
5	Johan Santana	26.2%	175	2000	2007	21-28
6	Max Scherzer	26.0%	161	2010	2014	25-29
7	Corey Kluber	25.7%	103	2011	2016	25-30
8	Brandon Morrow	24.2%	108	2007	2014	22-29
9	Sam McDowell	23.8%	317	1961	1974	18-31
10	David Price	23.5%	214	2008	2016	22-30

Now, one thing that needs to be mentioned here is the time in which Sale is pitching. You'll notice that of the top 10 names on the two lists, five are still active, though both Max Scherzer and Francisco Liriano have moved on to the National League. There's no denying that we're living at a time when hitters are striking out at a very high rate, and it's inflating the numbers of pitchers everywhere.

What Sale has done thus far, however, is still very impressive, and a helluva lot of fun to watch.

But he needs to pick it up this season if he's going to catch Pedro Martinez and stay ahead of Randy Johnson. This 9.0 K/9 may be good for regular stiffs like Sam McDowell (a K/9 of 9.0 would rank 11th, just behind McDowell and ahead of Herb Score), but it's not good enough for Chris Sale.

Pick up the pace, Chris. Pass Pedro.