The VandySports 100: No. 53, Patrick Raby

Vanderbilt baseball pitcher Patrick Raby is No. 53 on the list of best Commodores we've covered. You may follow the full list here.

Honors and awards: 2016 first-team Freshman All-American (Collegiate Baseball)

2019 second-team All-American (Collegiate Baseball)

In the VU record book: Career wins: first (32)

Career strikeouts: ninth (288)

Career ERA: ninth (2.98)

Career innings pitched: fifth (308)

Before VU: Had a storied career at Knoxville's Farragut High, where he was three-time All-American and the No. 246 player in the Class of 2015, according to Perfect Game. Lettered for four years and played in the state tournament each time. Won the 2014 state title and finished runner-up twice. Was all-state three times and the district Pitcher of the Year in 2015.

Freshman (2016): Pitched 15 times, making 10 starts, for a 43-19 (18-12 SEC) team that finished fourth in the Nashville Regional. Appeared in eight SEC regular-season games, starting five, posting a 3.68 ERA with 28 strikeouts and nine walks in 29 1/3 innings. Opened the SEC Tournament with a win, firing six scoreless innings against Missouri. Recorded his second save of the season with three scoreless innings in a regular-season win over Auburn. Threw six-plus innings against Georgia, striking out six while allowing two runs on three hits and a walk. Pitched five innings at Tennessee 4/24 allowing two runs on two hits with five strikeouts in a no-decision. Started his first career SEC game vs. Kentucky, pitching four scoreless innings and allowing just two hits with five strikeouts in a no decision. Picked up his fifth win of the year with two scoreless relief innings at LSU. Pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings to get a win vs. Mississippi St. Made his first career start vs. Eastern Illinois, when he struck out 11 and carried a no-hitter into the seventh while not allowing a run.

Sophomore (2017): Appeared 16 times, all starts, for a 36-25-1 (15-13-1) team that fell in the Corvallis Super Regional. Started all 10 SEC regular-season games, going 7-1 with a 2.57 ERA, 54 strikeouts and 18 walks. Allowed three runs on six hits while turning in his 12th quality start of the season in a win over St. John's in the Clemson Regional. Threw 6 2/3 innings against Missouri, allowing two runs on eight hits with six strikeouts. Got a win in a complete-game effort vs. Georgia, allowing one run on eight hits with one walk and four strikeouts. Threw seven strong innings to earn win at South Carolina, striking out six and allowing two runs on eight hits. Earned his third win of the year with six-plus solid innings at Ole Miss, allowing two runs on four hits with a walk and three strikeouts. Matched a career-best with 11 strikeouts over 8 2/3 innings in tough-luck loss to Saint Mary’s, allowing five runs (three earned) on six hits. Took the loss against CSUN, allowing three runs, one earned, on four hits with seven strikeouts over six innings. Earned his second win of the year with a quality start against UIC, striking out six and allowing one unearned run on three hits. Tossed five scoreless innings in his season debut at San Diego, allowing only one hit with three walks and four strikeouts

Junior (2018): Made 16 appearances (12 starts) for a 35-27 (16-14 SEC) team that lost to Mississippi St. in the Nashville Super Regional, allowing three runs or fewer in all but one. Started all 10 SEC regular-season games, posting a 3-3 record, a 3.88 ERA, 35 strikeouts and 21 walks. Struck out eight batters without allowing an earned run in five innings of three-hit ball against TCU. Did not allow an earned run for the third time in four outings, tossing five shutout frames at Mississippi St. Permitted just three hits in two-straight starts coming on April 15 against Ole Miss and April 20 at Missouri.

Senior (2019): Had a 3.42 ERA, a 6-1 record, 52 strikeouts and 28 walks in 50 SEC regular-season innings, which spanned 10 starts. Threw two scoreless relief innings in the deciding game of the Nashville Super Regional against Duke. Picked up four wins in a span of four starts vs. Alabama, Auburn, South Carolina and Missouri, all starts spanning 5-6 innings, during which he allowed just two earned runs. Walked six, but struck out seven and didn't allow an earned run, in a win over Florida. Picked up a win over Tennessee despite allowing three earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. Struck out five and allowed one earned run in five innings to pick up a win vs. Illinois-Chicago. Beat Dayton with six innings or no-earned-run ball and eight strikeouts. Pitched 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball to beat Cal State Fullerton in season-opening weekend.

Post-VU: Raby was taken by the Reds in Round 17 of the 2019 MLB Draft. He struggled in 20 1/3 Minor League innings last summer.

Final thoughts, and why I ranked him where I did: Raby may have had the strangest career of any pitcher in coach Tim Corbin's tenure, which makes him difficult to rank. I don't want that to take away from the many good things Raby did (and I'll return to those things at the end) but that part deserves a discussion in order to put his career in proper perspective.

Raby's career went backwards, and I still don't have an explanation as to why. Pitchers generally improve their control as they progress through their college careers. Raby instead saw a marked spike in hit batsmen and walks as a junior and senior and his runners allowed per nine innings went from an elite level to a poor one.

In spite of that, Raby's ERA's not only never went through the roof, but they were somehow still good. His worst mark was the 3.57 his last year and his worst SEC ERA was 3.88.

There are two explanations for how he was able to keep his ERA down his last two years. The first is that he stranded 79 and 82 percent of the runners who reached his last two years.

The second is that opponents didn't hit Raby hard with consistency at any stage of his career. He allowed 10 doubles, no triples and three homers as s senior, and 11 doubles, three triples and six homers as a junior. That's 33 extra-base in a combined 144 innings. roughly one every 4 1/3 innings.

Allowing a lot of runners, spreading around the hard-hit balls and hoping that the relievers behind you do their jobs, is quite a high-wire balancing act. But that's basically how Raby pulled it off.

The first two years of Raby were something special. Raby continually threw that high-spin-rate fastball between about 88-91 and hitters just couldn't do much with it. And because Raby had good control and didn't allow many runners, it was difficult to string together rallies against him.

The best way to judge Raby is probably through his career numbers. He was fifth in innings pitched, and ninth in ERA, and with all the great arms the program's had, that's loud. Being the school's all-time wins leader and going 32-11 in a career points to some luck, but it also shows a pitcher who gave a good enough effort to match his run support about three-fourths of the time. Raby wasn't a high-strikeout guy compared to the other VU greats--only four of the 23 pitchers in the VandySports 100 had a lower strikeout rate than Raby's 22 percent--but he could get them when needed.

Sure, Raby had just one season where he pitched a high level the entire time. But even with the warts, he contributed significantly in the other three. It's a weird body of work, but the totality of it justifies where I've ranked him.