Over at Royal Rooters, “Cambridge” interviews Rob Neyer. This bit on Mark Fidrych struck me, since it repeats something Neyer said in his book on baseball lineups:
It seems that Fidrych was one of the very rare pitchers who can thrive with a low strikeout rate, due to an ability to keep the ball down nearly all the time. A bit like Brandon Webb, but with better control. Do I think Fidrych would have been a Cy Young candidate every year? No. But I do think he’d have been a good or excellent major league pitcher for at least a few more years.
I do believe that there’re some pitchers who can pitch well despite low K/9 rates. Presumably if your ball sinks to a level where your G/F ratios are consistently ridiculous (above 3?) you’d fall into this category…