Just before the All-Star break I wrote about how Carlos Marmol was on pace for the highest strikeout rate in baseball history among pitchers with at least 50 innings.
In the two months since then he hasn’t missed quite as many bats, but the Cubs’ closer is still on an historic track. Marmol has racked up an amazing 120 strikeouts in 68.2 innings, which works out to 15.73 strikeouts per nine innings.
Not only is that the best strikeout rate of all time, Marmol is the only pitcher to ever crack 15 per nine innings:
YEAR SO/9 CARLOS MARMOL 2010 15.73 Eric Gagne 2003 14.98 Billy Wagner 1999 14.95 Brad Lidge 2004 14.93 Armando Benitez 1999 14.77 Billy Wagner 1998 14.55 Billy Wagner 1997 14.38
In terms of this season Rafael Betancourt has the second-highest strikeout rate at 12.83, which is 23 percent fewer strikeouts per nine innings than Marmol. Amazing.
