After a series of unsuccessful comebacks from shoulder injuries former Cy Young winner Brandon Webb has decided to retire, according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com.
Before all the arm problems Webb had a nasty power sinker that produced tons of ground balls along with a good strikeout rate, which is a rare combination that’s essentially ideal for a pitcher. Among the 136 pitchers with at least 1,000 innings since 2000 he had the highest ground-ball rate at 64.2 percent and the lowest home run rate at 0.63 per nine innings.
That’s some serious worm-killing.
He debuted for the Diamondbacks in 2004 and posted an ERA below 3.60 in each of his first six seasons, combining to throw 1,315 innings with a 3.24 ERA during that time. And before the shoulder injury Webb was incredibly durable too, tossing an average of 227 innings per season from 2004-2008.
Unfortunately he started to show signs of being hurt in late 2008 and then was shut down after starting on Opening Day in 2009. And he never pitched in the majors again, retiring now at age 33. Webb won the Cy Young award in 2006, finished runner-up in both 2007 and 2008 ... and then it was all over. Injuries suck.