If you tuned into ESPN2's telecast of Monday night's Tigers-Angels game, perhaps you saw that Justin Verlander leads the major leagues in swinging strikes with 366.
Jayson Stark adds to that, reporting that Verlander also leads the majors in pitches fouled off, with 626. Those two statistics led Stark to the following conclusion:
He'll have thrown 1,000 pitches this year that the poor hitters out there swung at but didn't put in play. (For the record, he's fired 2,967 pitches in all.) Anyone else out there find that as mind-boggling as I did?
Maybe that's what Verlander was saying to Gerald Laird during their little verbal skirmish in the dugout on Monday night. (And maybe Laird could've countered with, "Oh yeah? I grip the ball with three fingers when I throw!" Hey, things get said when tempers flare.)