Editor’s note: deGrom struggled against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday. His ERA rose from 0.50 to 0.69, still the lowest by any pitcher through 13 starts since earned runs became a statistic in 1913.

Mets’ flamethrower Jacob deGrom isn’t just having a great start to the season. So far, he’s having the best season by a pitcher we’ve ever seen.

Sports Illustrated / June 22, 2021
Reprinted with permission

In 2012, Cornell University mathematician Steven Strogatz wrote an essay for The New York Times titled “Visualizing Vastness,” about the difficulty of grasping large numbers:

“Admit it. You have no real feeling for the size of the solar system. That’s O.K. Nobody else does, either. Even knowing the numbers doesn’t help much. If I tell you the Earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter and 93,000,000 miles from the sun, does that give you any sense of the distances involved? No, because the numbers are too big.”

Jacob deGrom’s 0.50 ERA is the lowest by any pitcher in his first 12 starts of the season since earned runs began being tracked in 1913. His 0.51 WHIP is the lowest by any pitcher over a 12-start span since 1901.

There are pathways to better understanding—context, visualizations, analogies—but there is no way to really know, to feel, what those numbers mean. They’re simply too far out of the realm of anything we should reasonably expect to encounter in the regular course of an earthly life. So: If I tell you that Jacob deGrom has a 0.51 WHIP and a 0.50 ERA, does that give you any sense of the performances involved? No, the numbers are too extreme.

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