Verlander’s no-hitter further proof that ace starters will always rule

Innovation, or progressive thought, or disruption – heck, whatever you want to call it – has done some remarkable things to baseball’s landscape over two decades. It has rendered entire roles obsolete, changed the way the game is played, the way it looks, the way it’s mastered.

But there’s one paradigm that analytics and optimization cannot topple: The ace reigns supreme, and always will.

Justin Verlander threw his third career no-hitter on Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays, powering through a young and overmatched lineup on 120 pitches and racking up 14 strikeouts. It was a startling performance, all the more remarkable given his Houston Astros could not score a run for him until rookie Abraham Toro hit a two-run home run to break a scoreless tie in the top of the ninth inning.

That was the hard part. Verlander made the rest look relatively easy and after he retired Bo Bichette on a grounder to third, had his first no-no since pulling it off in the same building in May 2011.

Oh, how the game has changed since then.

We’ve gone from a pitcher-friendly environment to a game where action is scarce but the three true outcomes – home run, walk, and strikeout – are available in ample supply.

Where teams try to save money and find greater “efficiency” in their starting pitching, by limiting their kids’ diet to two times through the order, sometimes on the back of an “opener” designed only to pitch one inning, maybe two if he’s efficient.

Somehow Verlander, now 36, has sustained long enough to bridge both eras – and dominate them.

He probably wrapped up his second Cy Young Award with this gem, given that his AL-best ERA is now 2.56, his AL-best WHIP is now an absurdly stingy 0.77 and his AL-best innings total hit 193.

Ah, yes, the 200-inning starter. In the era when young players are assets rather than prospects, the workhorse is a dying breed, given how prospects are spoonfed through the minor leagues on strict pitch- and innings-limits and then need to pass a rigorous analysis at the big league level before they’re allowed to see a lineup a third time through.

Verlander’s 2011 no-hitter came in his first Cy Young season, when he racked up 251 innings, 250 strikeouts, a 0.92 WHIP, 24 wins against five losses. Pretty amazing, right?

Well, back then, it was pretty good – but hardly an outlier. Ten pitchers threw at least 232 innings that year and 39 crossed the 200-inning threshold – James Shields hitting 2491/3 innings. Clayton Kershaw nearly matched Verlander with 248 strikeouts.

Max Scherzer led baseball with 2202/3 innings pitched last year and just 13 pitchers topped 200 innings. That’s about how many will hit 200 this year, too.

Sure, the Tampa Bay Rays pioneered the “opener” concept and have made liberal use of it this season, which should once again end with at least 90 wins. But at a time when the starting pitcher seems marginalized, the correlation between dominant starter and championship hopes almost seems stronger.

Verlander’s Astros are now 90-49 and well-positioned for a third consecutive division title. While their largely homegrown core of position players gave rise to their dominance, they are World Series favorites because they spent big bucks on Verlander (a two-year, $66 million extension keeps him there through 2021), Gerrit Cole ($13.5 million) and Zack Greinke (due $70 million in 2020-21), who’s won four of his five starts since a July 31 trade.

While Verlander was no-hitting the Blue Jays, Washington Nationals starter Patrick Corbin was crossing the 200-strikeout threshold on the season. Signed to a $140 million deal in the offseason, Corbin teamed with Stephen Strasburg ($175 million extension) and Scherzer ($210 million free agent deal) to become the first National League trio to strike out 200 since the 1969 Astros.

The trio kept the club afloat during a siege of early injuries and bullpen absurdities, and now there is no stopping them – 20-7 since August 1, a likely home wild card game in the offing and plenty of firepower to scare their likely playoff opponents.

That would be the Dodgers, who extended Kershaw one more season at $33 million per year this offseason, brought back Hyun-jin Ryu on an $18 million qualifying offer and have let young Walker Buehler become the best version of himself since drafting him in 2015.

Those three have combined for a 36-12 record and a 2.77 ERA while consuming 4662/3 innings pitched.

Of course, it’s not so easy just to snap your fingers and order up a killer trio of pitchers; developing starters has always been the most imprecise art in the game, and there are a handful of Mike Hampton free agent cautionary tales throughout history.

At the same time, Corbin’s winter market was not what it should have been; the Yankees famously refused to go to six years for him, and we’ll find out in October if they regret it. Meanwhile, Ryu peeked out at the free agent landscape for a few days and determined it was wiser to accept the Dodgers’ qualifying offer.

This winter, Cole will hit the free agent market, probably coming off the best season of his career. Perhaps the two-dozen or so clubs who have made fairly regular use of the “opener” will realize there’s a better way to do it – even if it’s more expensive.

After all, there aren’t many Coles out there. As for Verlander, he showed Sunday he’s truly one of a kind – in any era.

(USA Today/TNS)