This Date in Baseball - Joe DiMaggio began his 56-game hitting streak
May 15
1918 — Washington's Walter Johnson pitched a 1-0, 18-inning victory over Lefty Williams of the Chicago White Sox, who also went the distance.
1919 — After 12 scoreless innings, Cincinnati scored 10 runs off Al Mamaux in the 13th to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 10-0.
1933 — The major leagues advance the cut-down date a month, limiting rosters to 23 players today instead of June 15th.
1935 — Lou Gehrig steals home in a 4-0 Yankee win over the Tigers. It is his 15th and last steal of home, all of which were double steals.
1941 — Joe DiMaggio began his 56-game hitting streak against Chicago's Eddie Smith, going 1-for-4 with one RBI.
1944 — Clyde Shoun of the Reds tossed a no-hitter against the Boston Braves for a 1-0 victory in Cincinnati. Chuck Aleno's only home run of the year was the difference.
1951 — At Fenway Park, the Red Sox celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first American League game in Boston.
1952 — Detroit's Virgil Trucks pitched the first of his two no-hitters for the season, beating the Washington Senators 1-0. Vic Wertz's two-out homer in the ninth off Bob Porterfield won the game.
1960 — Don Cardwell became the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter in his first start after being traded. The Chicago Cubs beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-0 at Wrigley Field.
1973 — Nolan Ryan of the California Angels pitched the first of a record seven no-hitters, beating the Kansas City Royals 3-0. Ryan tossed his second gem two months later.
1978 — His 7th-inning, two-run homer moves Willie Stargell past the late Roberto Clemente into sole possession of second place on Pittsburgh's all-time RBI list, his total of 1,307 now trailing only Honus Wagner's 1,475.
1981 — Len Barker of Cleveland pitched the first perfect game in 13 years as the Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0 at Municipal Stadium.
1993 — The Montreal Expos retired their first number, No. 10 for Rusty Staub.
1996 — Chicago outfielder Tony Phillips went into the stands to confront a heckling fan during the White Sox's 20-8 victory at Milwaukee. Phillips, who already had changed into street clothes after being taken out of the game in the sixth inning, went after a 23-year-old fan in the left-field bleachers.
2005 — Morgan Ensberg hit three home runs and finished 4-for-4 with five RBIs in Houston's 9-0 victory over San Francisco.
2005 — New York's Tino Martinez hit two homers and drove in three runs in the Yankees' 6-4 win over Oakland. The two homers gave Martinez eight homers in his last eight games.
2018 — Two days after being sidelined by a broken bone in his hand, 2B Robinson Cano of the Mariners is suspended for 80 days for testing positive for a banned substance in violation of Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.
2019 — Pitcher Edwin Jackson makes history by playing for his 14th team when he starts today's game for the Blue Jays against the Giants.
_____
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Washington legend joins coaching staff for one day
When the Washington Commanders opened Phase 3 of their offseason program this week, they had a special assistant coach. Team legend Brian Mitchell spent Wednesday working with Washington's returners in practice. Before any fans get their hopes up, Mitchell isn't joining the Commanders' staff. Mitchell joined Washington for one day, offering his expertise to his former team. Mitchell, who co-hosts the local radio show, "BMitch and Finlay," on 106.7 The Fan, has lived in the Washington area since his NFL retirement. Advertisement You can't blame the Commanders for wanting Mitchell to work with the returners. Mitchell holds the NFL record with 14,014 kick return yards and 4,999 punt return yards, and is second all-time, behind only Jerry Rice, with 23,330 career all-purpose yards. Yet, somehow, Mitchell is still not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Devin Hester made the Hall of Fame as a return man last year and gave Mitchell a shoutout, saying he also belongs in Canton, Ohio. Washington head coach Dan Quinn was thrilled to have Mitchell. "Brian Mitchell came through and spent some time with returners today," Quinn said on Wednesday. "With over 19,000 return yards and 13 special teams touchdowns, I had invited him in the winter: 'Hey man, do you mind coming through for a day and hanging out with us?' And so couldn't think of a more ideal person to share some insights and some ideas about returning. I'd asked him, he had not returned a kick until he got to the NFL. Now that was just wild man. Like how, what a work ethic it takes to say, yeah, I'll figure it out. Like, I'll find my way whether I'm playing running back or returning kicks or punts or covering kicks, like that's a real one. So, all that said, let's get rocking with you guys and start the day.' Among Washington's top return candidates is rookie wide receiver Jaylin Lane. The fourth-round pick from Virginia Tech could make an immediate impact for the Commanders in the return game. Second-year wide receiver Luke McCaffrey did a solid job as Washington's kickoff returner late last season when taking over for injured running back Austin Ekeler. This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: NFL record holder joins Commanders' staff for a day
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Sliders: As he nears 3,000 Ks, Clayton Kershaw shares thoughts on the future of his craft
Welcome to Sliders, a weekly in-season MLB column that focuses on both the timely and timeless elements of baseball. Durability and dominance are the twin pillars of pitching greatness. Prevent runs for a long time while humbling the world's greatest hitters: Few have ever done it better than Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sometime soon, Kershaw will record his 3,000th career strikeout. On Wednesday, in his third start of the season, Kershaw fanned three Cleveland Guardians to push his total to 2,974. His career earned run average is 2.51. Only one pitcher in history has that many strikeouts with a better ERA: Walter Johnson, who was born 100 years before Kershaw and last pitched in 1927. Johnson had a 2.17 ERA and 3,509 strikeouts — and if he had whiffed batters at Kershaw's rate, he would have fanned almost 6,400. In my colleague Andy McCullough's engrossing Kershaw biography, 'The Last of His Kind,' Kershaw said flatly that he did not care about 3,000 strikeouts. Advertisement He does. 'Yeah, I'd be lying if I didn't want to do it,' Kershaw said last week. 'But I think the coolest part is the company you get to be a part of. You know what I mean? There's just some really special names.' He laughed and continued: 'I try not to think about it, because honestly, at this rate 30 strikeouts seems like a lot. A lot can happen. But if I ever do get to do it, the guys that I came up with, Scherz and Verlander, I want to be in that group, too.' Justin Verlander (3,457 strikeouts), 42, is on the San Francisco Giants' injured list with a pectoral injury, and 40-year-old Max Scherzer (3,408), now with the Toronto Blue Jays, has been out since March with right thumb inflammation. Kershaw, 37, is coming off knee and toe surgeries. What a drag it is getting old. The three aces, of course, have a lot to show for their hardship. Each has earned more than 200 victories (262 for Verlander, 216 for Scherzer, 212 for Kershaw), which is very hard to do without a lot of success before age 30. When Kershaw turned 30, he had 144 wins. Verlander had 124 at that age, Scherzer 85. The active under-30 leader in victories? The Giants' Logan Webb, 28, with 60 — fewer than half of what either Kershaw and Verlander totaled by 30. If there's a certain successor to Kershaw, he hasn't revealed himself. 'It is weird to not see young guys figure it out,' Kershaw said. 'I wish there was a simple solution. Maybe (Paul) Skenes is that. Maybe 100 (miles an hour) is just too fast, maybe that's what it is. I don't know.' Nobody who started his career after 1988 has 300 career wins. But after this generation, is 200 also doomed? The master has thoughts. 'I hope starting pitching has a resurgence,' Kershaw said. 'I think it's better for the game to have starters throw 200 plus innings (and go) 115, 120 pitches. Seeing those matchups in the seventh inning, that's what fans like. I think it's better for baseball, I think it's better for health, I think it's better for relievers. It's good for a lot of things. Advertisement 'Now, how can we get back to that in an age where we have to have incredible stuff (and) be able to maintain it? I don't know how you get back to that, because I do think it is harder now. I think hitting is better. I think the strike zone's smaller. Even from 10 years ago, I think everybody's just better. I think the talent is just so much better. 'So unless you're like the few guys like (Tarik) Skubal or Zack Wheeler or (Yoshinobu) Yamamoto — you can kind of count them on one hand, the guys that have the ability to go seven every (start) — it's just hard.' No MLB pitcher has reached 115 pitches in a start this season. The Dodgers have had only two seven-inning starts (both by Yamamoto), the same as the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets. The Chicago White Sox have had one. The Miami Marlins haven't had a starter go seven all year, and their nominal ace, Sandy Alcantara, hasn't been right since 2022, when he won the National League Cy Young Award as a model of sturdiness. Alcantara led the majors with 228 2/3 innings that season, had Tommy John surgery the next October and now has the majors' highest ERA (min. 50 innings) at 8.47. In spring training, after the New York Yankees lost Gerrit Cole to Tommy John surgery, teammate Carlos Rodón noted that every throw is tracked for shape and spin, even in the bullpen. It's max effort with every pitch, every time. 'I agree with that, but at the same time, that's how you get drafted, that's how you make it through the minor leagues,' Kershaw said. 'So that's what you do, because teams value that over learning how to pitch.' Kershaw, a father of four, drew an apt analogy: In farm systems, he said, it's as if teams build fleets of Ferraris without making any minivans. Sometimes, he said, a minivan gets the job done. 'So there needs to be some blend of it to a point where you can do both,' he said, referring to power and durability. 'I know everybody's starting to think about how to keep guys healthier and how to get (more from) starters, because we use our whole bullpen more than anybody, and as good as our bullpen is, it's a hard thing to sustain. Advertisement 'I have tons of thoughts on it. Nobody knows if they're right. (We won't know) until somebody radical makes huge changes, until a team tries to flip everything on its head and find guys that can sustain it and just go for pitchability — other than just pure metrics and stats — and have success. You have to have success, or nothing's going to change.' It's unfair to demand that baseball produce more Kershaws. He is an outlier, after all, one of the greatest ever to do it. But it shouldn't be impossible. And as Kershaw approaches another milestone, it's worth studying his species to ensure its survival. Four teams signed Drew Pomeranz to a contract in 2024. He logged four days of major-league service, never got into a game, and spent months rediscovering something called summer. 'It was amazing — like, summer?' Pomeranz said recently. 'Most of us haven't had summer since we were I don't know how old. It's a different life. I played a lot of golf. Took my kids to school. We did the whole south of France thing. It was fun. I didn't know where I was.' Now, at 36, Pomeranz is back to a place he wasn't sure he'd ever visit again: a major-league mound. He didn't get there with the Los Angeles Angels, Dodgers, Giants or Seattle Mariners, who all held his rights last year. But the Chicago Cubs are glad they found him: In 14 appearances, Pomeranz has worked 12 2/3 scoreless innings with 14 strikeouts, three walks and no runs allowed. 'The guy's throwing fastballs by people right now, and his breaking ball is something that's always stood out to me,' starter Matthew Boyd said. 'It's just really cool that he continues to do his thing and get outs, and he's so valued on our team.' Pomeranz had flexor tendon surgery in August 2021, a month before Boyd. But while Boyd has appeared in the majors in every year since — even mixing in Tommy John surgery in 2023 — Pomeranz's record shows three blank seasons in a row: 2022, 2023 and 2024. Each year he pitched a handful of innings in the minors, which only increased his frustration. Advertisement 'It just felt like no matter what you do, nothing's working,' said Pomeranz, who had another surgery, in 2023, to remove a bone spur. 'I've always been a player who's like: 'I need to get back, I need to get back,' instead of probably being a little selfish and taking more time. You feel like a jerk when you're not with your teammates — not playing, just hurt all the time. It's not fun.' Pomeranz, an All-Star starter for San Diego in 2016, returned to the Padres as a reliever with a four-year, $34 million contract in November 2019. He pitched well in 2020, tore his flexor tendon the next spring and tried pitching through it until August, when the pain became unbearable. 'I threw a pitch and felt it rip more,' Pomeranz said. 'It hurt to throw my fastball so I was just flipping curve balls, trying to get out of the inning. I had two outs and the guy rolled over one. It just dribbled through the four hole and I was like, 'OK, I can't do this.' I gave it all I had.' Pomeranz never made it back with San Diego, but got through a healthy spring training with the Angels in 2024. From there he pitched in Triple A for the Dodgers, then left when the Giants offered a spot in the majors. It would last just four days, they told him, and Pomeranz warmed up once, at Citi Field last May 24. The Giants were trailing the Mets in the top of the eighth, and if it stayed that way, he would pitch the bottom of the inning. When a three-run homer by Patrick Bailey gave the Giants the lead, Ryan Walker was summoned instead. By the end of May Pomeranz was a free agent again, waiting for another call to the majors. It never came, and returning to the minors held no appeal. That left Pomeranz in a strange kind of purgatory. When you reach the majors as a phantom, fulfillment is elusive. 'I made it back but I didn't pitch,' Pomeranz said. 'There was a little bit in me that was like, 'I'd like to pitch one more time and just give it everything I got' — and that would be good. Just go out there and throw as hard as I can.' Advertisement The summer was fun, Pomeranz said, but also boring at times. He figured he should work out 'just to be a healthy human being,'and gravitated to a baseball training facility in Irvine, Calif., near his home. The Mariners signed him in early December, but Pomeranz was still conflicted. 'Before spring training,' he said, 'I was literally like, 'I just might not go.'' He went, pitched well and kept at it with Triple-A Tacoma, knowing he could leave if another team offered a job in the majors. The Cubs did, and when Pomeranz debuted against the Philadelphia Phillies on April 25, he lived out his vision: fastballs, as hard as he could. Bryce Harper swung through the first two, fouled off another, then swung and missed again. Pomeranz was back, this time for real. 'I don't care when I pitch, I don't care who I face, just tell me and I'm gonna do whatever I've got to do,' Pomeranz said. 'I have a very different perspective on baseball — and playing in general — than I did when I was younger. After not having baseball, I'm just happy to be here every day now. I don't care what happens. I'm just gonna enjoy it. The Mets' Francisco Lindor is already one of the most accomplished all-around switch hitters in major league history. With five more stolen bases, he will join Carlos Beltrán and former Cleveland teammate José Ramírez as the only switch hitters with 1,500 hits, 250 homers and 200 steals. And at 31 years old, he has lots of time to add to his resume. Lindor is a natural right-handed hitter. He's been essentially the same threat from both sides over his 11 MLB seasons: .286/.350/.488 as a righty and .269/.339/.469 as a lefty. Not only do most breaking pitches move into him, he said, but being a switch hitter also affords a clearer view of every pitcher's release point. That is, he never faces a pitch delivered from behind his head. Advertisement Lindor — who modeled his style after a fellow infielder from Puerto Rico who was traded from Cleveland to the Mets — offered some insights before a recent game at Citi Field. Why did you decide to switch hit? 'My favorite player, Roberto Alomar, and my brother and my cousin, they switch hit. I always wanted to be like them, so I did it. I always did it as a kid, but when I was 14, 15 years old, that's when I first took it seriously.' Did you struggle as you learned your left-handed swing? 'There's still struggles from the left side, still struggles on the right side. And I plan on it to be like that my whole career.' Why did you stay with it? 'I'm stubborn, and my dad always said, 'If you can hit .500 from one side, why would you switch and make it harder on yourself?' So I used it as a motivation to prove to him that I can hit from both sides.' What advice would you give to aspiring switch hitters? 'To stick to it — and if you take 200 swings from one side, you've got to take 200 from the other side as well. You've got to make sure you give the same amount of love to each side.' When you're hot (or cold) on one side, are you also hot (or cold) from the other? 'Most times, yes, because it's the same brain. When you're feeling good, you're feeling good. So you kind of bounce back from one side to another. But sometimes it doesn't work like that, and vice versa — if you're struggling from one side, it doesn't mean you're gonna struggle from the other side. So having two swings, when I'm struggling from one side I try to imitate myself from the other side, and that helps.' Milwaukee's Christian Yelich has been playing in the majors for 13 seasons. He's dug his cleats into the batter's box more than 6,500 times. And yet until this week, Yelich had somehow never come to bat at home in the ninth inning (or later) with the score tied. Advertisement Since baseball is utterly ridiculous, Yelich came up in that situation on both Tuesday and Wednesday against the Boston Red Sox. On Tuesday, he belted a grand slam for his first career walk-off home run. He didn't quite repeat the feat on Wednesday, but he did hit a single. Anyway, the game-ender was the 214th home run of Yelich's career, and it removed him from the list of players to never end a game with a homer. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Yelich had trailed only these five players for most career regular-season homers with zero walk-offs: That brings us to Cash, who fit into Tuesday's Grid as an All-Star with at least 40 career wins above replacement. A five-time All-Star with 52 bWAR, Cash played from 1958 through 1974, mostly for the Detroit Tigers, and was known for unusual bats. In 1981, Cash told Sports Illustrated that he always hollowed out the top of his bat, drilling a hole eight inches deep and half an inch wide and stuffing the top two inches with cork, glue and sawdust. It seemed to help most in 1961, when Cash hit 41 homers and led the majors with a .361 average. 'I owe my success to expansion pitching, a short right-field fence and my hollow bats,' Cash told SI. Cash's other unorthodox bat was uncorked, but disallowed. On July 15, 1973, at Tiger Stadium, Cash came up in the ninth inning against the Angels' Nolan Ryan, who was one out away from a no-hitter. Figuring his bats were pretty much useless, Cash brought a table leg to the box. 'I told Ron Luciano, the umpire, 'He can't hit with that,'' Ryan said in the 2022 documentary, 'Facing Nolan,' 'and (Cash) says, 'It doesn't matter, Ron, I can't hit him anyway.'' Cash popped to shortstop to end the game. The return last week of Atlanta's Ronald Acuña Jr., who missed nearly a year after tearing his left anterior cruciate ligament, is a reminder of his place in an all-time great trivia question. As featured on a recent episode of the 'Starkville' podcast, with The Athletic's Jayson Stark and former major leaguer Doug Glanville, Acuña is one of only three players to have 70 extra-base hits and 70 stolen bases in the same season. Advertisement The first was Ty Cobb, who had 79 extra-base hits and 83 steals for the 1911 Tigers. Acuña did it most recently, with 80 extra-base hits and 73 steals for the 2023 Braves. The other is a bit more obscure: Juan Samuel, with 70 extra-base hits and 72 steals as a Phillies rookie in 1984. As Richie Ashburn might have said: 'Hard to believe, Harry.' Ashburn, the Hall of Famer who shared the Phillies' broadcast booth with Harry Kalas for decades, appears in this 1985 commercial with Samuel, Kevin Gross and Glenn Wilson. It's a time capsule from the bygone days when ballplayers loved to unwind with sandwiches and Trivial Pursuit. (Top photo of Clayton Kershaw: Frank Jansky / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
Presenting the Cubs' All-Quarter Century team, the best on the Northside since 2000
Editor's note: The Athletic is marking 2025 by naming an MLB All-Quarter Century Team, selected by Jayson Stark. We invited readers to take our survey and make their picks for the best players at each position since 2000, with the results announced in an upcoming story. Some of our beat writers are picking All-Quarter Century Teams for the teams they cover. Check this page to find all of our All-Quarter Century Team coverage. Advertisement With Jayson Stark taking the time last week to dig in and start a spirited debate on an All-Quarter Century team, it felt worthwhile to see which Chicago Cubs of the past 25 years would fit the bill. Coming away from this exercise actually helps one appreciate just how good things have gotten for this organization. Imagine how sad this exercise would have been to perform in 2000? There would have been little debate and a quick drop in talent after a handful of names. That absolutely is not the case with this group. The last 25 years have marked an incredible shift in how the Cubs are viewed and what expectations fans have for the group. No longer is the moniker 'lovable loser' acceptable. Playoff droughts like the one the team went through over the previous four seasons have gone from the norm to inexcusable. There is plenty of talent to choose from over the last two-plus decades and the choices were not easy. There will be some controversy, surely, but that's what the comment section is for. Unsurprisingly, this team is littered with players from the World Series-winning team. Oftentimes, when things were close, the edge went to a player in that group just because they accomplished what once seemed impossible. This was a two-horse race with Rizzo edging Derrek Lee. But it was closer than some may have thought. Lee and Rizzo both posted a 131 wRC+ during their time with the Cubs but Rizzo was worth more wins above replacement, mostly due to the edge in games played. Lee won two Gold Gloves, made two All-Star teams and won a Silver Slugger (in 2005 when he finished third in MVP) during his time with the Cubs. Rizzo had three All-Star games, four Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger and two fourth-place MVP finishes. That, along with the World Series win, gives him the edge over Lee. He also deserves extra love for his work with Lurie Children's Hospital and his philanthropy associated with pediatric cancer. Advertisement Hoerner isn't flashy, but he's incredibly consistent at the plate and his glove is elite. There's probably an argument to be made that Hoerner's glove is a little underappreciated. It seems like once a week he's stealing a hit or saving his pitcher a run. At the plate, he doesn't hit for much power, but he rarely strikes out and has put up between a 102 and 108 wRC+ every season since 2021. Add in the fact that he's a plus base runner and he's a safe pick for this spot. Hoerner gets the edge over Ben Zobrist and Javier Báez, who are both good enough to show up on this list anyway. Great range and an elite arm paired with plus-plus power at the plate help make Báez the pick here. There are few Cubs in recent memory who fired up the fanbase and were must-watch whenever they entered the game as much as Báez. The swing and miss could be rough at times and the lows were quite low, but few provided as much joy and excitement as El Mago. #ElMago makes an 0-2 pitch disappear.#EverybodyIn — Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) April 25, 2019 Rookie of the Year, MVP and World Series winner, Bryant was as good as it gets at his peak. Yes, that peak was shorter-lived than expected, but the No. 2 pick in the 2013 draft delivered on the hype early. Aramis Ramirez deserves a mention here for his consistent production at the plate. During his time with the Cubs, Ramirez hit .294 with a .237 ISO while striking out just 12.3 percent of the time. Certainly an underrated player Cubs fans should appreciate. Tough choice between Happ and Alfonso Soriano, who took a lot of heat during his time with the Cubs largely due to the enormous contract he signed before the 2007 season. Happ has the edge in wRC+ which he gets due to his great walk rate, helping push his on-base percentage above .340. Happ has turned himself into a good defender in left as well. Soriano struggled there — though he'd show off his arm on occasion — but he improved over time and had impressive power. His speed was sapped almost immediately upon joining the Cubs due to a bad quad tear. The more this is discussed, the more difficult this choice becomes. Recency bias probably won out on this pick. Premature? Ridiculous? Unfair? Perhaps. But get this: During this timeframe, with 5.6 fWAR, Crow-Armstrong is already fourth among Cubs center fielders. In fact, if he just plays solid baseball the rest of the way, he could be first ahead of Dexter Fowler (7.2) by the end of the season. There have been plenty of words written about Crow-Armstrong in this space. He's a speed demon who plays elite defense, a great base runner and has suddenly become a great big-league bat. He is one of the most exciting and impressive all-around talents currently in the game and it feels like this won't be at all controversial in short order. This really isn't close. Sosa leads the right field list by 16 WAR (25.9) and 170 homers (238) over Seiya Suzuki. Maybe if the Cubs re-sign Kyle Tucker, there will be more of a debate come 2050. Quibble with his framing or game calling if you want, but he's the best bat the Cubs have had at catcher during this era. Geovany Soto deserves some love for his defense and Michael Barrett was probably overlooked for his bat, but Contreras was (and continues to be) a really valuable offensive player. He also quickly became the World Series team's regular catcher as a rookie and handled things well in a pressure-packed season. With the most important and most clutch hit in Cubs history, Zobrist, the 2016 World Series MVP, has to be on this list. There's also something to be said for the type of hitter Zobrist was during his career. The World Series-winning core was exposed over time by the high heater and breaking balls away. What they lacked was the diversity in the lineup. Specifically, a bat like Zobrist's. He was also a great team leader and steady defensive presence wherever he played. Advertisement Arrieta had the greatest run of pitching in Cubs history, arguably one of the most dominant stretches of the last 50 years. Lester brought a bulldog, winning mentality to a team that was filled with youth and searching for an ace. Hendricks rarely got much national love but his Cubs career was steady and strong. From 2014-2020, only six starting pitchers with a minimum 800 innings pitched had a better ERA than Hendricks' 3.13 (Clayton Kershaw, Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Corey Kluber, Zack Greinke and Chris Sale). Zambrano was mercurial, but he's the Cubs starting pitching leader in both WAR and innings during this period. Despite logging so much time on the mound, he was still fifth in ERA among pitchers with at least 300 innings. Prior edges out Kerry Wood and Ryan Dempster for an elite peak and for being second in ERA (3.51) behind Arrieta among pitchers with at least 500 innings. Marmol would have some stretches that would stress fans out and he could certainly struggle to find the zone at times. But, man, was he electric when on. Back when 30 percent strikeout rates were not the norm, Marmol had seasons of 33.7 percent (2007), 32.8 percent (2008) and a wild 41.6 percent (2010). Strop had a 2.88 Cubs career ERA and, in a role defined by volatility, was as steady and consistent as they come. He's also the second piece in one of the most lopsided deals the Cubs have ever pulled off — they traded Scott Feldman and Steve Clevinger to Baltimore for Arrieta and Strop. Quick mention for lefty Sean Marshall, who accumulated 4.9 WAR in just 219 innings pitched with a 2.67 ERA. It's really hard to find left-handed relievers, and Marshall is one of the best this organization has developed in recent memory. (Top photo of Báez: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)
