Chris Archer had 252 strikeouts and 66 walks over 212 innings in 2015. This year he had 233 strikeouts and 67 walks over 201.1 innings. His ERA was 3.23 last year but 4.04 this season.

Bartolo Colon won a total of 22 games from 2006-2011 and he looked finished. He then won 10 games in 2012. The last four seasons he has won at least 14 games each time out. Colon also led baseball as he threw his heater on 89.5 percent of his pitches despite averaging just 87.9 mph on the fastball. That velocity was 67th out of the 73 men who qualified for the ERA title. R.A. Dickey threw his fastball at 82.3 mph, the lowest in baseball, seven tenths slower than Jered Weaver. By the way, Noah Syndergaard led baseball throwing his slider at 90.9 mph.

Marco Estrada threw his changeup more than anyone at 28.6 percent of his pitches. Noah Syndergaard threw his changeup 89.8 mph, the hardest in baseball. There were 12 qualifying pitchers who didn’t throw their fastball that hard.

J.A. Happ’s career best for wins was 12 back in 2009 coming into the season. He went 20-4 for the Jays in 2016. He’s been in the big leagues for 10 years but he earned 24.4 percent of his 82 career victories this season.

Francisco Liriano led baseball, in a bad way, with a 4.69 BB/9 rate. There were four others over four per nine: Brandon Finnegan, Jimmy Nelson, Tom Koehler and James Shields. They all walked at least 82 batters on the season. Josh Tomlin walked 20 batters all season. He also gave up 36 homers. James Shields (40) and Jered Weaver (37) allowed more big flies. Meanwhile, Noah Syndergaard allowed just 11 homers all season.

Collin McHugh threw one more inning than Noah Syndergaard. He only won one fewer game – 13 to 14.

Ricky Nolasco went 8-14 to drop his career record to 108-103. Just thought I would share.

Martin Perez made 33 starts lasting 198.2 innings for the Rangers. Despite allowing two or fewer runs in five of his last six outings he still had a 4.39 ERA and 1.41 WHIP. In 87 career outings he has a 4.29 ERA and 1.41 WHIP.

Michael Pineda led baseball by throwing his slider 41.3 percent of the time. Chris Archer was the only other arm over 37 percent at 40.2.

Drew Pomeranz really throws that curveball. No starter leaned on the pitch more as he threw it 39.2 percent of the time. Collin McHugh was the only other qualifier who threw the pitch more than 27 percent of the time at 30.0 percent.

Rick Porcello led baseball with 22 victories. He also led baseball with a 7.63 run support mark per nine innings. The next best was J.A. Happ, who won 20 games, at 6.88.  James Shields (3.22) and Julio Teheran (3.35) both received less than half of that.

Jose Quintana has thrown 200, 200.1, 206.1 and 208 innings the last four seasons. The last three years his ERA has been between 3.20 and 3.36 with 178, 177 and 181 strikeouts.

Chris Sale went 3-7 with in the second half. His ERA was 3.28 and his WHIP 1.03. He went 14-3 in the first half with a 3.38 ERA and 1.04 WHIP. Win-loss records rarely tell the whole story.

No AL pitcher had an ERA under three as the leader was Aaron Sanchez at 3.00. There were eight men in the NL who bettered the mark.

Ervin Santana had a 3.38 ERA and 1.22 WHIP with 149 strikeouts. Why is it that no one really likes him but everyone is a fan of Chris Tillman who had a 3.77 ERA, 1.28 WHIP and 140 strikeouts? Oh yeah, it’s the wins as Tillman had 16, Santana seven. See the Sale comment above about wins-loses.

Max Scherzer has struck out at least 231 batters each of the last five seasons including 276 and 284 the past two seasons. Justin Verlander has never struck out 270 batters in a season though his total of 254 this year was the second best mark of his career (269 in 2009).

James Shields went 6-19 in 2016, tying Chris Archer for the most loses in the game. The three men who won 20 games – Rick Porcello, Max Scherzer and J.A. Happ – lost a total of 15 games. In fact, if we toss in Jon Lester who won 19 games, the top-4 winners in baseball lost a total of 20 games.

Masahiro Tanaka failed to reach 155-innings his first two seasons. This year he fell one out short of 200-innings.

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 8 PM EDT, Wednesday 7 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).