11. St. Louis Cardinals (22–19, plus-17, LT: 11)

Author:
SI Staff
Publish date:
May 22, 2017

ERA title-qualified starting pitchers with strikeout rates of 25% or higher and groundball rates of 50% or higher:

Michael Pineda

Carlos Martinez

Two takeaways here:

1) The five-year, $51 million extension the cards gave Martinez over the winter is going to be a colossal bargain.

2) Pineda could be damn good if he can ever learn to deceive batters (and/or catch a little luck) while he fills up the strike zone.