In two games
last week at Wrigley Field, Brewers’ reliever Josh Hader faced ten batters; he
struck out nine while yielding a harmless single. Lest I laugh too much, Hader did something
similar against the White Sox.
At 24, the lefty
has what they call “electric stuff,” pitches that move and move fast. Some of what Hader throws could be classified
as sliders, the rest as “slurves,” and hard ones at that. Going into this weekend’s action, Hader has a
6-1 record with a 2.05 ERA, to say nothing of 130 (!) strikeouts in 74.2 innings
pitched. Add in a WHIP of .75, and you’ve
got yourself one heck of a reliever.
The same goes
for Blake Treinen of the As. The righty
has a 6-2 record, along with a ridiculously miniscule ERA of 0.87; Treinen has
94 punchouts in 72.1 innings and a .87 WHIP.
I think only 90 of the strikeouts were against the Sox this season.
Hader and
Treinen are what teams dream of, lockdown relievers, as in no groundouts and no
flyouts, thank you very much. (For you fans of the rebuild, the Sox have their
own version of the above in lefty Jace Fry.
Just ignore the 4.24 ERA to concentrate on the 66 strikeouts in 46.2
innings.) The question, of course, is,
can Hader, Treinen and their like keep it up?
In a way, it doesn’t matter.
Having once found
a unicorn, teams will do whatever it takes to acquire another, no matter how
many arms get cast aside in the process.
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