I'm not really a fan of the win as a statistic for pitchers, unless I'm playing fantasy baseball, but if you're hell-bent on using it to describe how great Lance Lynn has been in 2012 I'm not going to blame you for it. Lynn, saved from a season in relief only by Chris Carpenter's injury, has 10 of them, against just two losses—but that's only one way of explaining how crucial he's been to the St. Louis Cardinals this year.
Here's some other ways: His ERA is 2.42, ninth in the National League, and he's thrown 82 innings, 10th in the National League. He's got 86 strikeouts—that's seventh—and a strikeout-to-walk ratio over three, which is Adam Wainwright territory.
If you're wondering how he's done it, he's combined brilliant command of his mid-90s fastball with a breaking pitch that's just different enough to create a bunch of called strikes—basically the Chris Carpenter approach, as taught by Dave Duncan from time immemorial. It works Pretty Well even if you have Kyle Lohse's fastball; if you have Lance Lynn's fastball... well, you're 10-2, for lack of a less dated statistic.
More Cardinals news from SB Nation St. Louis:
- Meanwhile, it looks like Adam Wainwright has finally returned to form.
- Wait a minute—so has Colby Rasmus?