Patrick Corbin’s pre-All-Star season one of best in franchise history
Jul 17, 2013, 7:17 PM | Updated: 7:17 pm
An Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher would need to be having a great, if not spectacular season, to be mentioned in the same breath as Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling or even Brandon Webb.
Patrick Corbin, who appeared in his first All-Star Game Tuesday, had a first half that was comparable to all of them, thus putting his name in the conversation.
Corbin entered the All-Star break with an 11-1 record and also owns the third-best ERA (2.35) in the National League.
Johnson’s 1.80 ERA in 2000 and Dan Haren’s ERA of 2.01 are the only earned run averages better than Corbin’s at the break.
Schilling never had an ERA under 3.00 at the break, while he was in a D-back uniform.
The 23-year-old Corbin has the least amount of losses out of any of the aforementioned pitchers and is one of three hurlers (Johnson, Schilling, Webb) to put up double-digit wins in the first half.
To compare Corbin’s strikeout total with the likes of the Big Unit and Schilling would be silly, but his 109 punch-outs is in the same ballpark as Haren and Webb.
Webb’s strikeout total was between 103 and 112 from 06-08 and Haren topped out at 129 punch-outs in 2009.
The season most comparable to Corbin’s first half would be Johnson’s 2002 first half when he posted a 12-3 record with a 2.47 ERA.
Johnson went on to win 12 more games in the second half and won the 2002 NL Cy Young Award. Corbin has a chance to do the same.
