Gamethread LII: Bartolo Colon will be on your TV

Bartolo Colon is pitching, today.

No, seriously, that’s it. That’s all you need to know. Bartolo Colon is pitching today.

OK, fine. Ian Kennedy is also pitching. The Royals will have a lineup, the Rangers will have a lineup. None of that matters. Bartolo Colon is pitching, today.

Bartolo is a freak of nature. You’ve heard Mike Trout described that way. You’ve heard Bryce Harper described that way. Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, and Shohei Ohtani, too. But Bartolo is different from all of them. This is his 21st season as a big league pitcher. There are kids currently playing in the major leagues who were not yet born when he got his first callup. He is pitching at an age when most players have already been retired for a decade. And he’s doing it very well. He has a WHIP under 1. Yeah, his FIP says he might be do for some regression in the near future, but Bartolo has been outrunning time for several years now, I’m not going to bet against him. Are you?

Speaking of outrunning time, he might have the best chance of any current starting pitcher of hitting 300 wins for his career. He needs 58 more. Which means he probably needs to pitch two to three maybe even four seasons after this one to get there. But he’s Bartolo. He might do it. You don’t know. Never count out touchdown Bartolo.

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