With five weeks of the season nearly in the books, which pitchers have been the most dominant in baseball? We have seen a new story on Zack Greinke on a near daily basis, but Johan Santana has been even better, at least according to the statistic I created to identify the game's most dominant pitchers.
SWHIP essentially combines WHIP with strikeouts per nine innings pitched, and it achieves precisely this.
* Tim Lincecum led the big leagues in SWHIP in 2008 with a mark of 0.031. Pedro Martinez has the best career SWHIP amongst starters with -0.020 and also the best single season with -0.507 in 2000.
Below are the top-10 starters and relievers in SWHIP through Thursday's games.
Starters
1. Johan Santana: -0.459
2. Zack Greinke: -0.333
3. Dan Haren: -0.184
4. Tim Lincecum: -0.079
5. Javier Vazquez: -0.026
6. Chad Billingsley: 0.075
7. Jake Peavy: 0.087
8. Yovani Gallardo: 0.097
9. Felix Hernandez: 0.100
10. Erik Bedard: 0.105
Note: Daisuke Matsuzaka and Chien-Ming Wang are dead last on this list with SWHIPs of 2.459 and 4.667 respectively.
Relievers
1. Jonathan Broxton: -1.286
2. Brian Bruney: -0.875
3. Scott Downs: -0.728
4. Heath Bell: -0.625
5. Andrew Bailey: -0.471
6. Rafael Soriano: -0.429
7. Kiki Calero: -0.397
8. Ryan Franklin: -0.382
9. Mike Gonzalez: -0.357
10. Dan Meyer: -0.231
Which Pitchers Have Been Most Dominant This Season?