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| Carlos Silva | Wandy Rodriguez |
| 3 - 8, 7.07 | 8 - 4, 4.59 |
Carlos Silva, huh? Wasn't he the guy who posted BB/9IP totals last year that some thought brushed up against what is humanly possible?
Silva walked an incredibly low 9 men in 188-1/3 innings in 2005, which translates to an absurd 0.47 men per nine innings. Nobody had had a season in which they walked so few in over 100 years.
Restricting ourselves to the modern era, Silva was 32% stingier with the walks than the man who'd formerly held the 20th century's best walk rate. Silva thus is to control pitching what Joe DiMaggio is to hit streaks: second best ain't really that close.
Silva also tossed that 74-pitch complete game on May 20th of last year, which was merely the most efficient game by pitchcount in over 60 years.
So this is what I know about Carlos Silva. Ultra-low walk rate, and a tendency to go deep into games carrying a low pitchcount. Turns out, none of it's applicable anymore. Silva's walking a man every 7 innings this year--not bad, certainly, but nothing worth writing about either. His closest stab at a complete game took him 109 pitches, and of course, there's the somewhat embarassing matter of his ERA.
It even looks as if Silva was taken out of the Twins' rotation earlier this year.
Silva's 2005 season was a landmark one, and you can't expect him to repeat it. But it is often surprising to me how far one player can swing as the pendulum of talent moves between greatness and suckitude.