El picheo parecía estar en etapa de extinción, con peloteros dando más de 50 jonrones por temporada y más de 120 carreras remolcadas, eran contados los lanzadores que tenían real dominio del juego, entre ellos podemos mencionar a Rogers Clemens, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz y Curt Schilling, dos de ellos en el salón de la fama y los otros dos con números reales para ser miembro del nicho de los inmortales del béisbol de las grandes ligas, por suerte y para bien de este deporte, el picheo volvió a subir el nivel y salieron a la palestra nuevas figuras con mucha efectividad ante sus rivales, Venezuela colaboró con ese resurgimiento de los buenos pichers, Félix Hernández, Carlos Zambrano y Johan Santana, este trío de lanzadores ejercieron un dominio total y para muestra un botón, los tres lanzaron juegos sin hits ni carreras, y Santana y Hernández fueron ganadores del premio Cy Young, galardón que se le entrega al mejor lanzador de su respectiva liga.

Since I follow baseball activities, either as a player, then as a fan and analyst of this beautiful sport, I have heard and read in countless opportunities that the basis of the ball game is the pitching, and it certainly is, although I must confess that I am a lover of the emotions generated by the batting and to be more specific the home runs, But it is also true that the commitments with so many runs and open are very boring, I still remember that in the 90's, or rather, the end of those years and the beginning of the new millennium, when in the big leagues the fashion were those games with large amounts of runs and homers, with figures like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez set the tone in those years.

Pitching seemed to be on the verge of extinction, with players giving more than 50 home runs per season and more than 120 runs batted in, there were few pitchers who had real command of the game, among them we can mention Rogers Clemens, Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Curt Schilling, two of them in the Hall of Fame and the other two with real numbers to be members of the niche of the immortals of Major League Baseball, fortunately and for the good of this sport, Venezuela collaborated with this resurgence of good pitchers, Felix Hernandez, Carlos Zambrano and Johan Santana, this trio of pitchers exercised total dominance and for proof a button, the three pitched games without hits or runs, and Santana and Hernandez were winners of the Cy Young Award, an award given to the best pitcher in their respective leagues. 

In recent years, Venezuela has been characterized in producing catchers and pitchers, especially left-handed pitchers and of great quality, I remember that in my years as a player it was said that a left-handed pitcher who was controlled was very valuable, but today there are many left-handed pitchers, even closers there are today, Antonio Castillo, was the first left-handed pitcher who showed dominance and managed to win a World Series game for a native of this land of Simon Bolivar, currently there are three names that are in a great moment and I will mention them with their current numbers in the 2023 season in the big leagues.

The first of my top 3, is the born in Guanare State Portuguesa - Venezuela, Martin Perez, is a left-handed pitcher of great control, with a straight line that is close to 93 miles on average, Perez belongs in the local ball to the Navegantes del Magallanes and in the United States to the Texas Rangers, comes from a great campaign in 2022, and this year has had a good start to the campaign, his current numbers are as follows: 3 games won by only 1 loss, his effectiveness is 2.60 clean runs in 27.2 chapters of work, with a total of 24 fanned, WHIP of 1.45, all these numbers in 5 openings, he has a projection of about 15 games won, we will see if it is fulfilled or manages to overcome last year's performance.

Baseball is going global, and if we go to the statistics that they handle in the MLB, we could say that yes, to see a big league that is Peruvian, is something that would never pass through the mind of any of us a few decades ago, but when entering the pages of the big leagues and search for information about Jesus Luzardo, left-handed pivot, we see that it clearly states that he was born in Lima - Peru on September 30, 1997, but Luzardo himself has taken it upon himself to say that he is Venezuelan, even though he was born in another country, his parents are from Venezuela and that gives him the right to claim our nationality, and that is what he did and defended the national tricolor in the final World Baseball Classic. 

Jesus Guillermo Luzardo, who currently belongs to the Miami Marlins, and is also a key player in the rotation of Florida, this 25 year old originally signed with the Oakland Athletics, being the number 1 prospect of that organization, came to Miami via trade two years ago for the Dominican Starling Marte, in Venezuela he is a member of the Aguilas del Zulia, but has not been able to debut in our league, Luzardo's numbers in the 2023 season in the majors are these: 2 wins, 1 loss, in 5 starts he has worked through 27. 1 inning, 32 strikeouts, 3.62 ERA and a WHIP of 1.39, make us think that this pitcher will be one of the most dominant in the coming years in the major leagues.

After the forced retirement due to injuries of double Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana, his baton as the best Venezuelan left-handed starter was taken by Eduardo Rodriguez, who began his successful career with the Boston Red Sox, but since last season he is part of the roster of the Detroit Tigers, Last season he could not show all that is expected of him, since he was injured and had family problems that kept him away from the field for a few weeks, in Venezuela, like Martin Perez, he belongs to the Navegantes, but he has been unable to pitch in our country for some years.

Rodriguez started off somewhat weak this season, but has been improving significantly, especially in the last two openings, his statistics in the current tournament are these: 1 wins and 2 losses, with effectiveness of 2.32, his total openings in this 2023 are 5, the amount of inins worked 31, 25 strikeouts and a WHIP of 0. 84, in the current statistics a lot of value is given to the WHIP and as you can see, it is the best of the lefty this season, we have as a task to continue observing each of the openings of these serpentineros and see how they finish this season, but I am sure that this trio of lefties will give many positive things to talk about.

The statistical information of the players mentioned in this publication was extracted from the official MLB website.

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