In this new age of bullpen starts, how many true aces are left in major league baseball? The Braves are gone partly because their guy, Chris Sale was no longer available, the old injury thing ending his season without a post season pitch.
Sale is likely to win the NL Cy Young award over Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler. The Phillies couldn’t get to their ace after blowing his outstanding game one outing vs the Mets. Wheeler slated to pitch a deciding game 5 never threw another pitch with the Phils eliminated in four.
Starting pitchers that even make it through the fifth inning are getting scarce. Teams more willing to roll the dice with fresh arms, but baseball’s love affair with ace starters remains. So much so that MLB might tweak the rules to force longer starts.
Pitchers that go deep into games are so valuable. You can abuse your bullpen the day before they pitch and probably have a rested one the day after. This is why the MVP argument that starters only go once every five days is folly.
Case in point, the Yankees Gerrit Cole who found his groove in game 4 of the ALDS against Kansas City. His sterling performance gave an entire team an extra day off from both performance and brain stress by going 7 innings in the clincher.
Now comes the fresh face. And while the freshest (Pittsburgh’s Paul Skenes) doesn’t yet have a team capable of getting him to the post season. The Detroit Tigers flash something special in Tarik Skubal. The question isn’t, will he win the AL Cy Young, it’s, will it be unanimous?
Skubal who won the AL pitchers triple crown by leading the league in wins with 18, strikeouts (228) and ERA (2.39) has already throttled Cleveland once. Though he didn’t get the win, he went 7 shutout innings in game one of the series.
That was after six shutout innings against the Houston Astros in the Wild Card series. They will play the ALDS deciding game 5 in Cleveland but the Tigers have 2024’s best pitcher in the game on the mound. Something the Guardians wish they had in a winner goes to the ALCS with one more victory.
