The free agent market offers fewer than thirty viable starting pitchers. If you’re looking for dominance, here’s how they rank by strikeouts per nine innings:
| Player | K/9 |
| John Smoltz | 11.57 |
| A.J. Burnett | 9.31 |
| C.C. Sabathia | 8.90 |
| Randy Johnson | 8.74 |
| Ryan Dempster | 8.15 |
| Oliver Perez | 8.14 |
| Randy Wolf | 7.90 |
| Ben Sheets | 7.45 |
| Bartolo Colon | 7.09 |
| Pedro Martinez | 6.93 |
| Andy Pettitte | 6.80 |
| Derek Lowe | 6.38 |
| Mike Mussina | 6.22 |
| Odalis Perez | 6.01 |
| Tim Wakefield | 5.81 |
| Jamie Moyer | 5.75 |
| Josh Fogg | 5.26 |
| Tom Glavine | 5.26 |
| Kyle Lohse | 5.06 |
| Brad Penny | 4.90 |
| Greg Maddux | 4.60 |
| Braden Looper | 4.37 |
| Kenny Rogers | 4.31 |
| Jon Garland | 3.96 |
| Paul Byrd | 3.89 |
| Mike Hampton | 3.83 |
| Sidney Ponson | 3.79 |
| Livan Hernandez | 3.47 |
A strikeout rate of 6.0 per nine or greater is considered decent. Only 14 free agents managed that so far. John Smoltz, Bartolo Colon, and Pedro Martinez are injury risks. Randy Johnson and Andy Pettitte aren’t true free agents in that they’re likely to be very selective about their teams (Smoltz and Mussina may also fit in this group). That basically leaves us with fewer than ten healthy pitchers with decent strikeout rates who are expected to hit the open market. These guys should fly off the shelves quickly.
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