Cliff_lee_babe_ruth
… which is a complementary factoid because 4-out-of-5 horse breeders recommend Cliff Lee over other gallant steeds.

Sean Forman, the SABR nerd who told us how awful Ryan Howard is (and who was presumably ducking under his sofa as The Big Piece launched bombs into the Milwaukee air this weekend), penned another styling for the NY Times this weekend. In it, he wrote about Lee's dominance and the fact that he has thrown 20% of all complete game shutouts pitched in the National League this season: [NY Times]

Lee’s total is more impressive when you consider how rare complete-game shutouts have become. His six are more than any N.L. team has had since 2005. There have been 30 in the league this year, and Lee has 20 percent of them, despite making 1.2 percent of the starts. You have to go back to Ed Morris of the 1886 Pittsburgh Alleghenys to find a single pitcher with 20 percent or more of a league’s shutouts.

So far in 2011, he has thrown all or part of 207 different innings. A full 174, or 84.1 percent of those innings, have been complete scoreless innings. This is 2 percent higher than second-place Josh Beckett, and it is the highest rate of scoreless innings since Pedro Martinez, in 2000. The overall highest rate, taking all pitchers since 1950, was 87.9 percent, put up by Bob Gibson in 1968.

 

Man crush meter has gone off the charts.