Fastball

Another Stat That Shows the Greatness of Atlanta Braves Ace Spencer Strider

We seem to always focus on the offense when it comes to the Atlanta Braves, but we should be focusing on the greatness of pitcher Spencer Strider as well.
Brady Farkas|
Another Stat That Shows the Greatness of Atlanta Braves Ace Spencer Strider
Another Stat That Shows the Greatness of Atlanta Braves Ace Spencer Strider

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Atlanta Braves

When it comes to the Atlanta Braves, we tend to focus on the offense. We focus on the history-making power numbers, the cool home run history or the overall abilities of Ronald Acuna Jr.

Perhaps we should be spending some more time focusing on the greatness of ace Spencer Strider on the mound. 

The Braves righty is having an incredible season in his own right, going 12-3 thus far with a 3.61 ERA. In 22 starts, he's struck out 208 batters, which outpaces the rest of baseball.

This stat, posted on social media by Sarah Langs of MLB.com, also shows his greatness:

most games with 30+ swings & misses, single season in pitch-tracking era (2008, including playoffs): 

2023 Spencer Strider: 3 

2020 Jacob deGrom: 2 

2015 Clayton Kershaw: 2

Sure, pitch-tracking has only been around for 15 years, but Strider already has the most games in one season of this variety in the history of the service. If you think of a pitcher as throwing around 100 pitches per game, to get swings and misses on at least 30 of them feels absolutely insane.

He's in his third year with the major league club, having gone 24-8 lifetime. He owns a 3.14 ERA and will be a major part of the Braves success or failure in the playoffs.

Atlanta is the favorite to win the National League pennant, and with Strider, and the return of Max Fried and Kyle Wright, they certainly seem capable of backing that up.

The Braves are off on Thursday but will start a weekend series with the Chicago Cubs on Friday afternoon.

First pitch is set for 2:20 p.m. ET as Fried makes his return from the injured list. He's 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA this season.

The Cubs have not named a starter yet.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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