Chris Sale: FGCU's Best is now one of MLB's Best

When I hear "Florida Gulf Coast University athletics" come up in a conversation, two immediate thoughts pop into my head. The first topic is of course Dunk City. If you haven't been living under a rock for the past two years, then you are at least somewhat familiar with the FGCU men's basketball team's miraculous run to the Sweet Sixteen in the 2013 NCAA Basketball Tournament. The second topic, but definitely not any less noteworthy, is Chris Sale.

I would hope that anyone that reads a sports website on Florida Gulf Coast University is familiar with who Chris Sale is. If you are familiar with Chris Sale, good, he's a spectacular pitcher in Major League Baseball. If you are not familiar with Chris Sale, then strap in, keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times, and prepare to become familiar with the three time MLB All Star. Regardless of whether you know who he is or not, Sale is having a masterful 2014 season, and there are plenty of statistics that verify that.

Sale is from Lakeland, Florida. He attended Lakeland Senior High School where he played baseball. His fastball generally sat between 83 and 86 MPH, while his change up sat high 70s and his curveball high 60s. The skinny southpaw always had goof stuff, but was not heavily recruited out of high school because of his odd "inverted-W" throwing motion. In 2007, after his senior year in high school, Sale was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 21^st round of the MLB First Year Player Draft. Instead of signing the contract to play pro ball at the age of 18, Sale opted to go to college to play at FGCU.

Chris Sale pitched for the Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles from 2008 to 2010 and was named the college baseball National Player of the Year in 2010. In three seasons at FGCU Sale threw 228.2 innings with a 2.53 ERA, 293 strikeouts, and only allowed 51 walks. What's even more impressive are his peripherals. Sale had an absurd 11.57 K/9 rate (strikeouts per nine innings), a minuscule 2.01 BB/9 rate (walks per nine innings), and a low WHIP (walks + hits per inning) of 1.11. Yeah, that's a pretty darn good three year run.

Many of those great numbers were in part because his 2010 National Player of the Year campaign was off-the-charts good. In 2010 Sale appeared in 17 games, 15 of which he started, and totaled 103 innings. He had an ERA of 2.01, walked only 14 batters, and led the country in strikeouts with 146. Once again his peripherals back up his dominant season. In his final season at FGCU Sale had a 12.76 K/9 rate, a 1.22 BB/9 rate, a 7.25 H/9 rate (hits per nine innings), and a WHIP of 0.94. Yep, those are the kind of statistics that get you labeled as the best pitcher in college baseball.

Chris Sale's success led to him being drafted 13^th overall by the Chicago White Sox in the 2010 MLB First Year Player Draft. After logging a mere 10.1 innings in the Minor Leagues in 2010 Sale was called up to the Chicago White Sox on August 4^th, and made his Major League debut on August 6^th out of the bullpen. In his rookie season Sale logged 23.1 innings of work with an ERA of 1.93, along with 32 strikeouts.

Today, Chris Sale finds himself as the ace of the White Sox pitching staff. He is widely regarded across baseball as one of the top 10 pitchers in Major League Baseball, and one of the top 3 left handed pitchers. Although the South Side Sox find themselves in fourth place of the American League Central Division, Chris Sale has kept on performing at an exceptionally high level. Sale has been nothing short of spectacular since coming to the big leagues, but 2014 is proving to be his best season yet.

Chris Sale has made 20 starts in 2014, and has totaled 136 innings. All of the following statistics that I am about show you are the best of Sale's career since becoming a starter in 2012. Sale has an ERA of 2.12, a K/9 rate of 10.46, a BB/9 rate of 1.72, a H/9 rate of 6.55, and a WHIP of .92. Every single one of those categories is in the top 5 for starters in the MLB except for his BB/9, which is in the top 15.

There is another statistic that I like to use to measure the performance of a pitcher called FIP, or fielding independent pitching. FIP measures what a pitcher's ERA would be if he had a league average defense behind him. Sale's FIP is 2.42, which is good for 4^th in Major League Baseball among starting pitchers, and another stat that is the lowest of his career. A few reasons behind Chris Sale's low FIP is that he is striking out 29.9% of the batters he is facing (highest of career), allowing a 18.3% line drive rate (lowest of career), and a 42% ground ball rate (lowest of career), so he's not leaving a whole lot for his defense to potentially mess up.

Put simply, Chris Sale has been taking care of business on the mound his entire life, and he is only getting better. The lanky lefty that use to sit 86 MPH is now sitting 96 MPH, and his slider that use to be a pitch he needed to work on is now widely considered one of the nastiest pitches in all of baseball. If Sale hadn't missed starts between April and May with a strained flexor muscle in his left arm, he'd be right in the thick of the AL Cy Young conversation. Even with his injury Chris Sale has been worth 4.5 WAR (wins above replacement) which is good for 6^th in the American League.

Still, an AL Cy Young award is probably in Chris Sale's future. Sale is an established pitching power house in Major League Baseball, and he is only 25 years old. If recent history tells us anything about pitchers, then Sale hasn't even reached the age of his prime yet. It's hard to imagine Chris Sale getting any better, but with the way he is consistently improving his statistics every season, and as he continues to refine his pitches, he very well could keep improving. I would not be the least bit surprised if in a year or two I am writing about how the FGCU product is the best pitcher in Major League Baseball.

Written by Cameron J. Kaiser