As far as I am concerned, R.A. Dickey threw a perfect game last night. Perfect games require a lot of skill and a certain amount of luck. R.A. was missing the luck part. A fielding error and a throwing error by Wright was the only reason he didn't see 27 up and 27 down. The pitching skill required between last night's 1 hitter and a perfect game is exactly zero, only external factors prevented R.A. from getting it.
I am having an absolute blast watching R.A. pitch. I have been a huge fan of his since his first start with the Mets and have been singing his praises ever since. He has gone from being a very good pitcher whose biggest flaw was a total lack of strikeouts to a lights out dominator who strikes out essentially everyone. This is a blog about stats but right now I don't need stats to express how good Dickey is. Just watching the man pitch is like watching an artists at work. The knuckleball shucks, jives and pirouettes past batters, it confounds and confuses them. Carlos Pena compared it to being on a rollercoaster.
All year I have been complaining that Dickey gets no fantasy respect, I drafted him an all my leagues with the last pick. As of 2 starts ago he was owned by just over 50% of teams, I am proud to report that he is now owned by 88% of yahoo owners. There is no better stat that displays the widespread realization of a fact Mets fans have known for three years, R.A. Dickey is an ace.
Believe it or not, Dickey actually has a chance at the NL pitching triple crown now. This statement probably would have seen ridiculous like 4-5 starts ago, but he has really piled on the strikeouts in his past few starts and is now 4th(probably 5th when gio gonzalez pitches, or 4th if you consider that strausburg will likely be shut down) in the league in K's, T-1st in wins, and 3rd in ERA. Simply amazing
ReplyDeleteHad not even thought about that Derway, very exciting possibility. I am gonna write a post about that tomorrow.
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