FanNation - The Republic of Sport

The Bandit said 06/18, 02:01 PM
Nice pick SS.

I'll go with LA Angels.

The stats

Lackey..........4-1 / 52.0 IP / 39 K // 9 BB / 1.73 ERA / 0.92 WHIP
Saunders..10-3 / 94.0 IP / 46 K / 23 BB / 3.06 ERA / 1.13 WHIP
Santana.......8-3 / 95.1 IP / 82 K / 21 BB / 3.40 ERA / 1.08 WHIP
Garland........6-4 / 89.1 IP / 34 K / 31 BB / 4.13 ERA / 1.46 WHIP
Weaver.........6-7 / 91.1 IP / 65 K / 24 BB / 4.73 ERA / 1.31 WHIP

1st off,we are talking about the rotation "as a whole" and not focusing on one individual pitcher.

LAA rotation has a combined record of 34-18...Toronto has 31-23. W's and L's are not a good barometer towards evaluating a rotation's potential as you stated because they are contingent upon run support.

Plain and simple..we have to look at the combined stats for all 5 starters in terms of WHIP and ERA.

Here' how each rotation fared collectively thus far.

Toronto's 5 starters..463.1 IP / 434 H / 184 ER / 126 BB

LAA's 5 starters. 422.0 IP/ 399 H / 167 ER / 108 BB

From the stats, I've calculated each rotation's ERA and WHIP as a whole.

Toronto....3.576 ERA and 1.209 WHIP
LAA...........3.568 ERA and 1.201 WHIP

Angels are slightly better. More next.

The Bandit said 06/19, 12:25 AM
If we're gonna break down each SP and compare..you will see that LA has the better overall talent.

Individual stats are already provided above in the previous arguments, so voters can refer to them.

Lackey has a lower ERA and WHIP than Marcum. Edge JL.
Halladay beats Santana in ERA and WHIP. Edge RH.

"Litsch=Saunders". I disagree with this.

Saunders...3.06 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, .238 BAA....10-3 rec
Litsch..........3.70 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, .287 BAA.....7-3 rec

Saunders is better.He beats Litsch in 4 categories.

I agree the rest of our starters are the weak links to our rotation, so that is awashed.

Now let's talk "quality starts" or QS.

A QS is defined as an outing of at least 6 IP allowing 3 or less runs in the process. It is a criteria that determines how successful a starting P is per outing.

Here are the # of "Quality Starts" of each P out of their total starts thus far into the season.

LAA rotation.

JL....7 QS out of 7
ES...10 QS out of 14
JS....9 QS out of 14
JG.....8 QS out of 14
JW....7 QS out of 15 (weak link)

Total: 41 QS out of 64 or 64.1 %

On next argument, I'm going to show you that the Toronto's rotation has a lower % of QS.

The Bandit said 06/20, 09:47 AM
Currrently

LAA has allowed 179 R, 169 of which is ER in 428 IP
TOR..211 R, 196 is ER in 469 IP

Calculate each rotation's ERA. Result: LAA is at 3.55... TOR is at 3.76

The 1.8% (94.4 -92.6) diff. in ER as u stated only amounts to TOR giving up 5 less ER. It's miniscule over a span of 70 games.

5 / 70 = 0.07 in less ER a G..or 1 less ER every 14 G. Very unnoticeable. It doesn't hold water. It's a reach.

Now,TOR's % of QS.

RH...9 of 14
SM..11 of 15
JL.6 of 13
DM...9 of 15
AB..7 of 15

Tot: 42 QS out of 72 or 58.3%

What does a terrific rotation offer???

It's quality starts.You can't get more in depth than QS towards measuring how consistently efficient a rotation can be. With LAA's higher % of QS to that of TOR(64% to 58%), they're a more consistent squad.

LAA has 269 K's. NOT 189 as u stated.TOR may get more K's BUT what good is it if they also give up runs in short work. If they can't hold their own by getting shelled on the mound they can't be all that effective. Hence lower % QS. LAA may not be as flashy, but w/ quality pitching.. they get the job done.

Bottom line

Lower ERA and WHIP
Higher % of QS

LAA is BETTER.