I was cruising through the yahoo standings today and here are the top 10 pitchers: (I'll save the hitters for another post)
Pitchers:
1. Papelbon 46 IP, 0.59 ERA, 0.72 WHIP, 47 K
2. Ryan, BJ 42 2/3 IP, 0.84 ERA, 0.70 WHIP, 54 K
3. Santana, Jo. 131 IP, 2.95 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 138 K
4. Liriano 88 1/3 IP, 1.83 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 102 K
5. Nathan 36 IP, 1.75 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 52 K
6. Mussina 122 1/3 IP, 3.24 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 108 K
7. Schilling 127 1/3 IP, 3.60 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 115 K
8. Kazmir 115 2/3 IP, 3.27 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 125 K
9. Halladay 129 1/3, 2.92 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 72 K
10. Rivera 46 IP, 1.76 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 35 K
Kudos to Papelbon, he is playing lights out! Ryan is having another good season and I am suprised we don't hear more about him (must be the whole canadia thing). I wonder if Santana is pissed or psyched to have Liriano around? The kid has a SICK Ks/9 ratio. Nathan is a bit of a surprise just because the Twins took a while to get started (he only has 36 IP). The rest of the list looks ok, but when you look at 11-15, there are a couple questions (Jenks, Putz, Bonderman, Lackey, and Beckett).
So do we have to face the Twins again? I hope not! It would be great for the central teams to kick the crap out of each other in the second half. That might leave a little more room to grab the wild-card. What am I thinking?! Why do I want the Yankees to get the wild-card :-)
So do we have to face the Twins again? I hope not!
ReplyDeleteNice research! Seriously, yes we do, in late September.
I wonder how Yahoo compiles those stats? I mean, as awesome as Papelbon is, based on those stats alone I'd still prefer having Santana on my team. And it's so much harder to maintain microscopic ERA's when you pitch a ton of innings (as starters do) vs. just a few (closers).
One of the complicating factors in the Yahoo rankings is that they are based on scoring in 5 X 5 leagues that run fairly deep. So Papelbon’s value is extraordinarily high since he leads in saves he goes a long way to putting one in first place for saves and his microscopic ERA, granted while not over a huge number of innings, still helps someone tremendously in ERA.
ReplyDeleteFor example if you have Papelbon and an average starter (league average ERA of 4.5 in around 100 innings and 6 or 7 wins with 70 Ks – like a Jake Westbrook or Kevin Millwood, you drop your combined ERA all the way down to the low threes. But if you take a middling reliever, albeit a very good one (Street, Jenks, K-rod, Ray), they give you the count in the saves and a couple of wins, but they really don’t lower your overall ERA all that much. If you have 4 starters and 2 relievers, Papelbon’s effectiveness basically lowers everyone’s ERA by about 10% or almost a half a run.
The same thing happens on offense with SBs – compare stats of Crawford vs. Tejada. Or guys like Corey Patterson, Chone Figgins or Scotty Pods are top 25 players, yet if you remove their SBs, they are no more productive on offense than Jorge Posada.
Because it's not the same without the pinstripers there. And oh, I started contributing to a new place, called DUGOUT PRESS. It has links to all the teams, some unfinished, some manned. I took over (??) the Sox site. Here's the link. This is a work in progress. If you scroll down and look on the left, you'll see all the team's links. And down on the right are newspaper articles. Stop by, and maybe comment. Soon, this will be a very popular place. And all contributions to the Sox page would be amazing. Here's the link....thanks.
ReplyDeletehttp://dugoutpress.com/redsox/