NL's Pitching Dominance Is Best We've Seen in Long Time

When it comes to starting pitching in the National League, embarrassment of riches is an embarrassing understatement.

We're going to throw out a bevy of numbers to drive that point home, but here's a good one to start with: four.

That's how many Senior Circuit hurlers boast ERAs under 2.00 entering play Wednesday. It's also the number of pitchers in both leagues who've accomplished the feat over a full season in the past 10 years.

As we roll toward the All-Star break, this is looking less like an anomaly and more like a historic trend.

The Los Angeles Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw is leading the way, which should surprise only those residing under hunks of metamorphic matter.

The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner and 2014 NL MVP is putting together a superlative campaign, even by his lofty standards, and paces MLB in ERA (1.57), innings pitched (115) and strikeouts (141).

Kershaw, however, is merely the tip of the bat-freezing iceberg.

Reigning NL Cy Young recipient Jake Arrieta boasts a 1.74 ERA with 101 strikeouts in 93 innings for the juggernaut Chicago Cubs.

San Francisco Giants southpaw Madison Bumgarner sports a 1.85 ERA with 115 strikeouts in 102 innings, and he appears to be switching into his next-level October gear at the outset of summer.

Bolt-throwing New York Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard is following his promising rookie campaign with a transcendent sophomore season, posting a 1.91 ERA with 106 strikeouts in 85 innings.

And that's just the sub-2.00 ERA club. Behind them, there's Johnny Cueto, who's 11-1 with a 2.06 ERA and joins Bumgarner to form arguably the best pitching tandem in baseball by the Bay.

We say "arguably" because veteran left-hander Jon Lester and his 2.06 ERA complement Arrieta nicely atop the Cubs rotation.

Oh, and we haven't even mentioned Jose Fernandez, who is reinserting himself into the ultimate-franchise-pitcher conversation with the Miami Marlins, fanning 125 in 87.2 innings with a 2.36 ERA.

Or how about Stephen Strasburg, who was scratched from Monday's start—a hotly anticipated matchup against Kershaw—with a back strain but boasts a 2.90 ERA with 118 strikeouts in 93 innings?

Let's pause for a moment and think about the All-Star Game. Assuming all the pitchers named above (and others like, say, the Nats' Max Scherzer) are healthy and available, the NL might not even need any bullpen arms.

The American League has its share of studs—from 12-game winner Chris Sale of the Chicago White Sox to surprise knuckleballer Steven Wright of the Boston Red Sox—but right now, the National League wins the arms race, hands down.

Eight of the top 10 pitchers by ERA hail from the NL. So do the top five by strikeouts. If you like wins above replacement (WAR), the NL has eight of the top 10 there, too.

"We seem to be in something of a golden age of aces," WTOP.com's Noah Frank opined. "In 2012, there were 10 qualified starting pitchers in the National League with better than a strikeout an inning. This year, there are 26."

That number has dipped to 17, but the point stands.

Sure, AL apologists will grumble, NL pitchers don't have to face the designated hitter except during interleague play, which offers a perennial advantage. And MLB's four worst offenses by OPS and batting average reside in the National League, suggesting there are more bottom-feeding clubs for aces to feast on.

The eyeball test, however, backs up the assertion that most of the best pitchers in the game ply their trade in the NL. Call it design, call it a quirk of fate—more than anything, it's an undeniable fact.

It could stay that way for a while, too. Syndergaard, Fernandez, Strasburg, Kershaw and Bumgarner are all under age 30, and none can become a free agent until after the 2018 season or later. These horses could be going neck and neck, and pacing the field, for years to come.

And consider this tantalizing proposition: If the season ended today, the Mets and Dodgers would be the NL's two wild-card teams. Imagine a one-game Kershaw-Syndergaard showdown with the season on the line and tell us you didn't just drool a little.

Or how about Bumgarner and Arrieta going toe-to-toe in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series? Strasburg, Scherzer and the Nationals seeking redemption? Heck, maybe Fernandez and the Fish will wriggle their way into the picture.

Are we getting ahead of ourselves? Yes. Is it fun to speculate about the many permutations this NL ace-a-thon might bring? Heck yes.

OK, now let's rewind to an April contest that pitted Syndergaard against Fernandez. The Marlins prevailed, 2-1, with both pitchers flashing the melange of velocity and movement that makes them special.

Fernandez, in fact, was the first Miami hitter to get a knock against Syndergaard that day. After the game, he described his counterpart's stuff, per Sporting News' Jesse Spector: "It's very good. Very good."

Simple, direct and crackling over the plate like a triple-digit fastball.

When it comes to starting pitching in the National League, that about sums it up.

All statistics current as of June 21 and courtesy of MLB.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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