Erik's Been Bedard To Hit

As bad as the Baltimore Orioles are (43-52, 13.5 out of 1st, 31 losses away from guaranteeing a 10th straight losing season), it's probably time we start to recognize Erik Bedard as one of the truly elite pitchers in the game right now. This season, it's guys like Dan Haren, Jake Peavy, Chris Young, Johan Santana (again), Brad Penny, Josh Beckett, and John Lackey who've been getting most of the praise. But with the exception of wins (again, see "Orioles, bad") Bedard's numbers are just as good, if not better than all those other guys.

First, let's talk about strikeouts. Bedard's 167 are best in the bigs. You heard that right, better than Santana, better than Peavy. He wiffed 11 Oakland Athletics last night (not that that's a particularly difficult thing to do right now) and gave up just one hit. It was also his 5th 10+ strikeout outing this season. Peavy has 4 (all in a row). Santana has 3. His 4.07 K:BB ratio is 8th best in baseball, better than Peavy, Haren, Lackey, and Young as well.

He's not getting all his outs by strikeouts, but he is getting lots of outs. Opponents are hitting .211 against him. That's 5th best in baseball. And that's better than Peavy, Beckett, Penny and Lackey. His OPS against is just .618, 4th best in baseball, and better than Santana, Penny, Beckett, and Lackey. And his 1.08 WHIP is 8th best in baseball, with Penny, Beckett, and Lackey lagging behind.

Next, let's talk about overall pitching performance. Even though he has only 9 wins, Bedard has 15 quality starts. Only Haren, Penny, and Peavy have more. His ERA is 3.12, 13th best in baseball (and still better than Lackey and Beckett). But can you imagine how much better it would be if it wasn't for Bedard's 6.09 ERA in the month of April? He gave up nearly half of his season's earned runs (23 of 47) in those 6 starts. In his 15 starts since, he is 6-2 with a 2.12 ERA, and 0.92 WHIP. And in his last 3 starts specifically, his numbers look like he's a softball pitcher for the University of Arizona- 3-0, 0.39 ERA, 0.48 WHIP, 12.9 K/9 and a silly .079 batting average against.

Bedard probably won't win more than 15 or 16 games this year (by my conservative estimate, the O's have already cost him at least 3). And he probably won't win the Cy Young either. But at the end of the year his numbers will be right on par with some of the best arms in the game and provided he can stay healthy, he won't be a well-kept secret much longer.