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Let’s start with that walk rate, which at 13.6% is the highest of any qualified starter by a full 2% over Kodai Senga. It would be the highest since 1994, when Todd Van Poppel walked 16.7% of the batters he faced in the strike-shortened season, or 1993 if you prefer, when Wilson Alvarez walked 13.9% of hitters. The game has changed in the 21st century, of course, and we don’t really let pitchers do that any more. Snell’s 13.9% walk rate, should it hold, would be the highest of any qualified starting pitcher this, well, millennium.
Walk Like A Franciscan (highest walk rate, 2001-22, qualified pitchers)
BB%
Daisuke Matsuzaka BOS 2008 13.1%
Edinson Volquez SDP 2012 13.1%
Kazuhisa Ishii LAD 2004 13.1%
Clayton Kershaw LAD 2009 13.0%
Al Leiter NYM 2004 12.9%
Walk Like A Franciscan (highest walk rate, 2001-22, qualified pitchers)
BB%
Daisuke Matsuzaka BOS 2008 13.1%
Edinson Volquez SDP 2012 13.1%
Kazuhisa Ishii LAD 2004 13.1%
Clayton Kershaw LAD 2009 13.0%
Al Leiter NYM 2004 12.9%
