Diaz is a dude...

[Angels]

Seattle Mariners Rookie Edwin Diaz Is Making All of Baseball Look Silly

By MICHAEL SALFINO
The Wall Street Journal
July 25, 2016

The Chicago Cubs acquired the hardest-throwing reliever in baseball history on Monday when they traded for New York Yankees flame-thrower Aroldis Chapman. Yet for all the attention Chapman’s triple-digit radar readings receive, the most dominant strikeout pitcher in history is hiding in obscurity thousands of miles away in the Seattle Mariners’ bullpen.

Rookie Edwin Diaz has struck out 12 of his last 16 batters, raising his strikeout total this year to 44 in 21.2 innings. According to Stats LLC, just one pitcher on record has matched Diaz’s strikeout rate for the first 93 batters he faced: five-time All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel. Diaz’s average of 18.3 strikeouts per nine innings is also the highest recorded for a season (minimum 20 innings).

The 22-year-old righty converted to the bullpen in the minors just this year, shortly before making his big-league debut on June 6. That’s similar to the path taken by Chapman, primarily a starter in Cuba and also initially as a Reds prospect. Chapman today averages 100.1 mph with his fastball–the highest in baseball–while Diaz is just 10th fastest at 96.8 mph, according to Fangraphs. But Diaz’s best pitch is actually a slider he throws a quarter of the time.

When Chapman made his debut with the Cincinnati Reds, he recorded strikeouts against 31 of the first 93 batters he faced (33%). But he walked more than twice as many (13) then as Diaz (six) has so far. And like Chapman then, Diaz has yet to be entrusted with a save situation in Seattle.

It’s no guarantee that a dominant debut predicts continued dominance–witness Al Alburquerque in 2011. Now, five years later, he’s on the disabled list in the minors. And there is no doubt we are living in an era ripe for strikeout records, with baseball on pace to have the highest K% for the ninth-straight season (21%). But the question no one can answer is whether today’s home-run happy hitters are more prone to missing pitches or if there are just more hurlers like Diaz, who are nearly impossible to hit.