Fun Facts About Craig Kimbrel, Who Is Now a Red Sox

The following is a series of facts about Craig Kimbrel’s amazing career. They are not meant to sway you one way or the other with respect to the merits of the trade. For once in your life enjoy a sports person doing great sports person things instead of worrying about the value in a transaction. Yes, I’m looking at you.

• Craig Kimbrel has the second most saves of all time through a player’s age-27 season. He has the most saves of all time through a player’s sixth season. Yes, I know saves are a dumb stat. But they don’t let you keep getting save chances if you suck. So take that, nerds.
• Craig Kimbrel is the only player in baseball history with at least 150 innings pitched, a FIP below 2.00 and an ERA+ above 200.
• Craig Kimbrel is one of 11 players in the last 50 years to have pitched at least 50 innings in a season and finish with an ERA+ of at least 300 and a FIP of no more than 2.00. He’s the only one to have done it twice.
• Craig Kimbrel’s K% was 36.4% in 2015. It was the lowest rate of his career. It was the 37th highest rate of any pitcher with at least 50 innings since the turn of the century.
• Craig Kimbrel’s FIP was 2.68 in 2015. It was the 32nd best mark in baseball among all pitchers with at least 35 innings last season, tied with Clay Buchholz and better than breakout performers like Jeurys Familia, Roberto Osuna and A.J. Ramos.
• Craig Kimbrel’s opponents have managed a 35 OPS+ through his career. That is six points lower than any other pitcher with at least 100 career innings has allowed in the last 55 years.
• Craig Kimbrel threw 62.2 innings in 2012. Opponents managed an OPS+ of 1 against him that season, and struck out 50.2 percent of the time.
• I don’t think you spent enough time thinking about that last one. Go back and read it again.
• Craig Kimbrel’s opponents have an .067 ISO over the course of his career. That is the lowest mark for any pitcher with at least 300 career innings in the expansion era.
• Craig Kimbrel’s career cFIP is 52. Exactly one pitcher bested that mark in 2015, and 14 pitchers not named Craig Kimbrel have bested it in a single season since his career started in 2010. (min 40 IP)
• Craig Kimbrel had a 21 cFIP in 2012. That’s the best single-season mark since Pedro’s 19 cFIP in 1999. (min 40 IP)
• Craig Kimbrel has had one calendar month in his career in which his fastball averaged under 95.0 mph. It was the first calendar month of his major-league career when he pitched four innings. He averaged 94.8 mph on his fastball in that month.
• Craig Kimbrel averaged less than 98.0 mph on his fastball for just one calendar month in 2015. He averaged 97.9 mph on his fastball in that month.
• Craig Kimbrel has pitched five full seasons in the majors. In those seasons, he has finished 2nd, 1st, 12th, 5th and 6th in swinging strike rate. (min 500 pitches)
• Craig Kimbrel has two separate scoreless innings streaks of at least 28 innings.
• Craig Kimbrel threw 37.2 consecutive innings without allowing a run in 2011. During that streak he struck out 49 percent of his opponents and didn’t allow any extra base hits.
• Craig Kimbrel struck out a batter in 20 straight appearances two separate times in 2015. It was the second season in his career in which he accomplished that feat twice.
• Craig Kimbrel has appeared in 355 games in his career. He’s allowed more than one earned run in 14 of them.
• Craig Kimbrel allowed three earned runs on April 29 of last year. It was the first and only time in his career that he allowed more than two earned runs in an outing.
• Craig Kimbrel looks like a marionette from the “Bye Bye Bye” video when he waits for the sign from the catcher.

Photo by Jim Cowsert/USA Today Sports Images