The Best Pitcher You've Never Heard Of

You, perhaps, have never heard of Tim Berners-Lee. You can be forgiven. Berners-Lee first proposed creation of the World Wide Web and helped invent the language that powers it. Because he handed the ball off to others the credit for his achievement has been diffused.

Likewise, even connoisseurs of America's Pastime can be forgiven if they can't pick the best pitcher in baseball out of a lineup.

I refer to 33-year-old Padre right hander Mike Adams, a 6'5" beanpole whose record of achievement dating back to the Bush II Administration merits a Cy Young-style award for middle relievers, but instead has delivered anonymity north of Orange County and east of Rancho Cucamonga.

Over the last two seasons and the first month of this campaign, Adams has turned Major League hitters into gobs of Smuckers apricot jam. In 120 innings, Adams has allowed all of 14 extra-base hits while fanning 142 batters. Opponents have blind-squirreled their way to a .157/.216/.215 line against him, giving him an 0.52 RA. (That counts seven unearned runs against him.) For all that, the mid-90s sinkerballer collected $414,800 in '09 and $1 million last year.

It's not like Mike Adams was a slacker prior to that. In '08, while earning a pauper's sum in baseball terms -- $335,000 -- he clamped down on batters to the tune of .200/.263/.331 and a 2.48 RA with 74 punchouts in 65 innings. That's roughly what left fielder Gabe Gross brought to Oakland's offense last year, and he's now out of the majors. For Adams, a repeat of that season would be a disappointment, but in 2008 they were a harbinger of things to come.

Because context is everything -- think how a "traditionally white college" would go over -- it merits mentioning that Adams toils in the no-DH league and in a home park that turns aluminum bats to wood. Still, even if those conditions impose a 20% penalty on batters facing Adams, that doesn't get anyone without a cape to an 0.52 RA.

Appearing for an inning every other game last year, Adams managed to produce 2.5 wins of value to San Diego. That's more than Adam Lind, Ivan Rodriguez or Todd Helton accounted for in 120+ games full games. For that, Adams got a raise to $2.5 million this year. And continued anonymity.

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