Carlos Marmol is striking a lot of people out. Of the 103 total batters he has faced this year, 49 have taken their bats back with them to the dugout. That’s 48% of them - only four pitchers in history have finished the season at over 40%, with the all-time record holder Eric Gagne’s 44.8% from 2003. Even more astonishingly, those 49 K’s have come in only 24.2 innings.
Carlos Marmol: K THX BAI
Basically, that's two strikeouts per inning, or in more conventional sabermetric terms, 17.8 per nine IP. The next-highest rate by anyone with that many innings, is Carlos Villanueva, all the way down at 11.9. Marmol has always been a K/BB-heavy pitcher: his career rate is 11.1 K/9, but this is remarkable, even for him. What has the guy nicknamed White Castle on Bleed Cubbie Blue - because he has "sliders so nasty, they make you crap your pants" - been doing this year?
The odd thing is, he's not actually throwing any more strikes. That number is still at 59%, the same as it was last season. But batters are just proving clinically unable to put wood on the ball. 27% of Marmol's strikes have been swinging; that's a huge jump from 2009 (18%) and getting close to double the MLB average of 15%. Hitters make contact only 55% of the time when they swing - MLB average is 80%.
His arsenal of pitches hasn’t changed much, but he has gained some giddy-up on his fastball and slider, which are 1.6 and 2.7 mph faster than his career average. While it’s the slider that remains the killer, Marmol reckons it’s the control of his fastball which has really helped him take it to this level. “My command is a little better... I can throw my fastball with two strikes now.”
In a season which has had its issues for Cubs fans, Marmol has been an undeniable bright spot, and it’ll be fun to see how long he can maintain this insane strikeout rate.
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