Cole Hamels is leading the NL in an odd collection of statistics. The fact that he is leading in wins (9) and strikeouts (104) is indicative a young pitcher who has not only clearly ascending to the lofty position of team ace; he is one or the premier pitchers in the league at the tender age of 23.

However, oddly, he leads the NL in home runs (16). The last pitcher to lead his league in home runs allowed and wins was Curt Schilling with the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks (actually tied for the lead in both categories). It is something that has been done just once in the last 28 seasons and just 26 times in baseball history, with 15 of those coming after Babe Ruth revolutionized the game with the long ball.

Here are the pitchers to do it since 1950:

As for leader one's league in wins, home runs, and strikeouts, that's even rarer. It's happened just five times in baseball history and just once since the Deadball era:

All this made me wonder if Hamels, given the historically high rate of home runs and strikeouts in the game today along with the fewer innings being pitched by starting pitchers, is on a pace to record more strikeouts and home runs per innings pitched any other pitcher in baseball history.

To determine this I created a new stat that I'll refer to as a Herkup, as an homage to former Royal GM Herk Robinson and my favorite bodily function—eh, why not? It actually stands for home runs plus strikeouts per innings pitched, but it sounds better that way, like WHIP.

I ran the numbers for the highest recorded Herkup. Here are they are—note that Biitner was a first baseman who had one abysmal outing in a 19-3 route of the Cubbies at the hands of the late lamented Expos on July 4, 1977. In his only pitching appearance, Biitner allowed six runs in 1.1 innings for a 40.50 career ERA:

However, this throws Hamels in with a bunch of players whose numbers are skewed by pitching so few innings. As far as pitchers who qualified for the ERA title in their league, Hamels' 2007 Herkup ranks 46th all time. Here are the highest:

Player	Yr	HR	SO	IP	Herkup
Randy Johnson	2001	19	372	249.7	1.566
Pedro Martinez	1999	9	313	213.3	1.509
Randy Johnson	2000	23	347	248.7	1.488
Kerry Wood	1998	14	233	166.7	1.482
Randy Johnson	1997	20	291	213.0	1.460
Randy Johnson	1999	30	364	271.7	1.450
Randy Johnson	1995	12	294	214.3	1.428
Henry Porter	1884	1	71	51.0	1.412
Pedro Martinez	2000	17	284	217.0	1.387
Randy Johnson	2002	26	334	260.0	1.385

Adjusting for era, we get:

To avoid Deadball eccentricities, here are the best since 1930. Hamels comes in just 207th: