Here’s where it gets really good. Woo ranks in the 100th percentile in Fastball Run Value; that is to say, in a world of sweepers, slurves, and Matt Brash sliders, his get-out pitch is his four-seam fastball, which he regularly dots on the upper margins of the strike zone. He’s astoundingly accurate with all of his pitches, borne out by his being in the 95th percentile in BB%. He’s walked two batters or fewer in every start this season, and in six starts in May, he threw 38.1 innings and walked two batters total.
Woo entered the season as the Mariners’ fourth starter behind three players with Cy Young Award potential in Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo, and George Kirby. Let’s be honest and admit Tarik Skubal has all but won the award with less than two months to go in the season, but Woo is the only Mariners pitcher listed in BetMGM’s top ten Cy Young candidates. All that to say, Woo has shone brighter than the rest of the starters in a stacked rotation.
Also, speaking of Cy Young, after Woo pitched six innings on August 16 and only walked—you guessed it—two batters, he became the only pitcher to open a season with 24 six-plus inning starts with two or fewer walks since Young did it 30 times in 1905.
What about Greg?
If you grew up in the ‘90s watching baseball, you knew Greg Maddux, aka the Professor aka Mad Dog. He claims to have set hitters up with pitches intentionally left over the plate just to strike them out months later in higher-stakes situations, and who are we to question one of the greatest starters to ever play the game? Pitching in the juiced-ball era, Maddux was a low pitch count, ground ball machine, winning four consecutive National League Cy Young Awards in a row, the last of which came in 1995 along with a World Series ring with the Atlanta Braves.
Is Woo going to win four straight Cy Young Awards? The Mariners’ rotation is so deep and top-heavy, he may not even be the best starter on the roster—ever. Greg Maddux allowed 30 extra base hits in 1995. Woo may allow 30 home runs by the end of 2025. So how can Woo be like Maddux—baseball’s patron saint of diabolical precision and psychological warfare on hitters?
Maddux was a paragon of efficiency and utilized his full arsenal to deceive hitters, inducing weak contact, i.e. ground balls. Woo is a “fastballs first, ask questions later” type of guy. Perhaps their biggest similarity was a simple one: throwing strikes. Forget for a moment that umpires seemed to have a handshake agreement with Maddux to expand the strike zone to reach the batter’s boxes. Attacking hitters is the name of the game for both, but Maddux peppered the low corners of the zone. Woo gets away with putting the ball in what appears to be very hittable areas of the strike zone.