How the St. Louis Cardinals rotation stacks up against Atlanta’s

Dakota Hudson vs. Mike Soroka

Dakota Hudson and Mike Soroka have been arguably the two best rookie pitchers in the league this season, and we could very well see them face off in Game 3 of the NLDS.

Dakota Hudson was a former MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospect and he has put together quite the season for the St. Louis Cardinals.

When it was announced that top starter (now closer) Carlos Martinez would have to miss some serious time with an injury, there was an open spot in the Major League rotation. Dakota Hudson seized that opportunity and pitched his way to a spot on the OD roster.

Hudson was off to a rough start in the MLB rotation, but settled in with a very solid May campaign and found himself as the only starter in the rotation with a sub-4 ERA.

He finished the 2018 season with very solid numbers, totaling a 3.35 ERA, which was good for 11th in the National League. Something that is worrying with Hudson is that he has a very high FIP and also led the MLB in walks. His ERA-FIP difference was 1.58; which is very drastic.

A lot of analysts say that Hudson has just been getting very lucky, well not quite. Like Keuchel, Hudson pitches to contact and has even induced the highest groundball rate in all of baseball at 58.1%. His groundball rate paired with the stellar infield defense behind future Gold Glover Kolten Wong and All-Star Paul DeJong has played a huge part in his success this season.

Mike Soroka put together a marvelous rookie season for the Atlanta Braves and could earn himself a few votes in the NL Rookie of the Year race as well as the NL Cy Young race

Soroka finished the 2019 season with the third-lowest ERA in all of the NL at 2.68. Like Keuchel though, he is a pitch to contact pitcher as he only had 142 strikeouts on the season, compared to Flaherty’s 231.

The rookie is best known for his filthy sinker. It can touch about 95 miles per hour and can get almost any hitter to bite on it.

Advantage: Mike Soroka