Brandon Webb’s sinking fastball made him one of the more difficult pitchers to face in the middle part of the last decade. He won a Cy Young in 2006 and finished second in the balloting in each of the two years to follow. He retired today, and baseball bats everywhere took a sigh of relief. Webb’s natural sinking action on his fastball resulted in Major Leaguers breaking more than their fair share of lumber in the batters box. Among the 136 pitchers with at least 1,000 innings since 2000 he had the highest ground-ball rate at 64.2 percent and the lowest home run rate at 0.63 per nine innings. He did some serious pitcher’s pitching. Relying on movement and command, Webb’s career ERA was 3.27. At age 29, Brandon Webb looked like he would dominate for a long time coming. Then, injuries took their toll.
Following 5 straight seasons of 200+ innings (and 4 straight 220+ innings totals), Webb started on Opening Day 2009. He came out of that game complaining of shoulder soreness and...
Found February 04, 2013 on
Off The Bench:
PLAYERS:
Brandon Webb,
Jake Peavy,
Jason Bartlett,
Adam Dunn
TEAMS: Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, San Diego Padres
TEAMS: Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, San Diego Padres
Original Story:
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