Jacob deGrom's incredible start to the 2021 season has caused the baseball world to come together in a way that they perhaps haven't since Barry Bonds broke the single-season home run record 20 seasons ago.
In a sport where fans and media members are increasingly driven to direct all their focus on the team in their local market, everyone involved seemingly now finds a way to watch deGrom pitch for the New York Mets every five days, knowing that they'll probably see something historic.
Just how dominant has the two-time National League Cy Young Award winner been in 2021? These four stats put his historical dominance in even better perspective:
4.2 fWAR
Jacob deGrom is a two-time NL Cy Young Award winner.(Mike Stobe/Getty Images)Despite some minor injuries that have limited his workload, deGrom leads all pitchers with a 4.2 fWAR. His former teammate Zack Wheeler - slated to start Tuesday evening for the Philadelphia Phillies - is second in that category at 3.4. When deGrom won his first National League Cy Young Award in 2018, he finished the season with a staggering 9.0 fWAR. But even that year, he had "just" a 3.1 fWAR after 12 starts, as opposed to a 4.2 fWAR after 12 starts in 2021. For good measure, deGrom has also been worth 0.5 fWAR as a hitter this season.
777 ERA+
Jacob deGrom is the NL MVP favorite.(Christian Petersen/Getty Images)This was mentioned on the SNY broadcast during deGrom's start against the Atlanta Braves Monday, as he now has a 777 ERA+. MLB.com defines ERA+ by saying that the metric "takes a player's ERA and normalizes it across the entire league. It accounts for external factors like ballparks and opponents." So an average ERA+ is 100. The best mark that deGrom ever had in his career came in 2018, when he finished with a 218 ERA+. Pedro Martínez's 291 ERA+ in 2000 is the best mark in a single 162-game season in MLB history. Trevor Bauer - the eventual National League Cy Young Award winner - had a 292 ERA+ in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season across 73 innings. deGrom has a 777 ERA+ in 72 innings in 2021.
0.87 FIP
Jacob deGrom is having his finest season yet.(Elsa/Getty Images)FIP (fielding independent pitching) aims to remove any defensive prowess or ineptness behind a pitcher to get a better gauge of how much of a given pitcher's success is based solely on how he's thrown. As MLB.com notes, while "strikeouts, unintentional walks, hit-by-pitches and home runs are factored into the equation," FIP "entirely removes results on balls hit into play." Essentially, the statistic operates as a check on the simpler formula of ERA, trying to determine if a pitcher's ERA is reflective of him dealing with good or bad luck. Well, deGrom has a 0.87 FIP, so there's no indication that his 0.50 ERA has been some type of fluke driven by unsustainable production defensively when he starts. The next lowest FIP among starting pitchers in baseball comes from San Francisco Giants righty Kevin Gausman, who has a 2.37 FIP.
4 Earned Runs Allowed
Jacob deGrom is a three-time All-Star.(Mike Stobe/Getty Images)Through 12 starts in 2021, deGrom has allowed just four earned runs, giving him a minuscule 0.50 ERA. He's not quite knocking on the doorstep of Orel Hershiser's MLB record of 59 consecutive innings without surrendering a run, but as WFAN's Lou DiPietro noted, deGrom has now thrown 30 consecutive scoreless innings, setting him up to surpass R.A. Dickey's franchise record of 32 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings in his next start. And, as we're sure you've heard by now, deGrom has six RBIs in 2021, meaning he's produced two more runs than he's allowed.
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