Jered Weaver's No-Hitter Is a Sign 2012 Will Be Year of the Pitcher

Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim threw a no-hitter against the Minnesota Twins on Wednesday night, proving that pitching continues to dominate Major League Baseball. 

Twelve days ago, Philip Humber of the Chicago White Sox threw a perfect game. It was the first since 2010, and much to the fans' delight (except for Minnesota), MLB delivered with another superb pitching performance.

Weaver was in control the whole night, using his fastball to thrive and ending the night with nine strikeouts. He was just a dropped third strike and a walk away from having a perfect game. 

It's not easy to throw a no-hitter, let alone a perfect game, but in recent years it's practically a guarantee it will occur at least once a year. 

With two elite pitching performances on the year so far, the 2012 season is shaping up to be another year where pitching runs the show. Some fans will be pumped for this, but others would prefer the bats to come alive much more often. 

Granted, this no-hitter did happen the same night the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies combined to score 28 runs on 36 hits in extra innings. While slugfests tend to occur from time to time, no-hitters have become less uncommon in recent history.

Since 2007, there have been at least two no-hitters thrown during the season, but with just about each new year the number increases. In 2011 there were three no-hitters, but in 2010 there were six, and two of those were perfect games.

Pitching stole the show that year, and this season won't be any different. 

While there have been some games in the 2012 season where a ton of runs have been scored, two no-hitters this early in the year is excellent proof that it's going to be a year of the pitcher.