By Cameron Boon
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Numbers never lie. Isn’t that how the old saying goes? Well for Rochester Ridgemen starter Connor Hamilton (Cedarville), the numbers prove a lot. Just looking at his record, the regular fan would see a regular starter who is having a shaky start to the season at 2-2 with one no-decision. But dig a little deeper, and they will see just how good this young man from Rochester, NY has been.
“I don’t know how he’s been able to do it, but I’m glad he’s figured it out,” Rochester manager Brady James said.
Well, with baseball being a game of numbers, they will be the source of proving this.
Starting with the simple and getting to the more specific, Hamilton has been a workhorse. Anybody who remembers CC Sabathia being the Yankee workhorse in 2009, that’s what Hamilton has been this season. Two complete games and three eight-inning outings, Hamilton leads the league in innings pitched with 42. This comes with having one less start than Zach Uher (Niagara Power/Baruch). He has not thrown more than 98 pitches in a game, nor has he ever walked more than one guy in an outing.
As a pitcher who rarely gets above 85 MPH, and throwing a lot of strikes, one would think that this pitcher would be one to get hit time and time again, but according to Hornell Dodger first baseman Spencer Scorza (Cornell), there’s a little more to it than that.
“Seeing a new arm angle and slot takes getting used to,” he said.
With Hamilton being a side-arm pitcher, it’s different then what a batter is used to seeing.
“As a batter, you want to take a pitch and see where that arm slot is and get the timing down,” Scorza added.
Taking that first pitch is a mighty big risk, as 78.5% of his first pitches are strikes through his first five starts.
After seeing his arm twice, Scorza and his Dodger team know what he is all about, yet have only mustered four runs against him.
“I want (my team) to know that they don’t have to put up eight runs a game and that four or five would get us the win,” Hamilton said.
With an ERA at 1.50, it’s amazing that his team has only gotten two wins off his pitching performances.
“Your pitcher has to pitch very well against him to win,” Dodger manager Tom Kenney said.
It’s not just the first pitches that are landing in the strike zone, it’s almost every pitch. Hamilton has thrown 457 pitches on the season, and 346 of them have landed for strikes. That’s a hair under 76 percent of his pitches being strikes. In comparison, the current MLB leader for strike percentage is Phil Hughes of the Minnesota Twins. He’s at 72.4 percent, which is around 3.5 percent lower than Hamilton’s mark.
Throwing strikes, according to the Cedarville pitcher, is all in the head. “It’s all about focus. Baseball is a mental game.”
“No matter how prestigious a wooden bat league is, throwing strikes is huge. He comes right at you,” Scorza added.
Another number that jumps off the page are his Batting Average Against, and his WHIP (Walks/Hits per Innings Pitched). His BAA currently stands at .195, which would be third among major league pitchers right now only behind Garrett Richards (.194) and Johnny Cueto (.171).
His WHIP is even more incredible, standing at a miniscule 0.76. Which means that he is allowing less than one base runner per inning. That would be first in the majors right now, ahead of Cueto’s mark at 0.84.
“I just try to give my team a chance to win,” Hamilton said. With his local Rochester family coming to every start up at Basket Road, he is surely doing that and some more.
“He works fairly quickly and throws strikes. That good pace keeps our defense and our dugout in it,” James said.
Good working pace is one thing, but where Hamilton lacks that Sabathia or Cueto-esque speed is in his location.
“The goal is to get the fastball dipping down,” Hamilton said.
And when that fastball is dipping down, it is hard for batters to elevate it and get a hit off the pitch. So, in essence, that produces a lot of ground ball outs. In his five starts, there have been 63 of those produced, an average of 12.6 of them per start.
“Ground balls are always a good thing for a defense,” James said.
One last number that cements Hamilton’s monstrous production is his Strikeout/Walk ratio. That number currently sits at 8.00, which would be third in the MLB behind Hughes (8.80) and David Price (9.00).
“He is a very quality college pitcher that isn’t going to make a lot of mistakes,” Kenney said.
With all of these numbers, there’s not a lot more to say about the season Hamilton has been having.
“One word: Impressive,” James said.
The numbers never lie and since that’s the case, the opposition that the Gates-Chili graduate faces is forewarned because unless something happens, Hamilton isn’t slowing down.
Contributing to this article: Tim Mullhaupt
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