Random Stat

by mark w on Apr 24, 2007 5:59 PM EDT in News Comment 2 comments

While typing the entry for the 19th All-Time Greatest Blue Jay (according to us), I came across some numbers that made me look twice.

ERA+ Leaders (for qualified pitchers through April 23, 2007, and courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com):

Rich Hill and Tim Hudson are pitching in a completely different stratosphere at the moment. But, more than anything, these ridiculously high numbers (remember, 100 is league average) show that it's early in the season. Players will regress to the mean, and this list will look very similar to past ones. Still, coupled with his second half last season, Hill looks like the real deal. Even with Mark Prior and Kerry Wood MIA, they have two formidable pitchers at the top of their rotation in Hill and Carlos Zambrano.

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Not to mention

old friend Theodore Roosevelt Lilly, who looks so far like a good fit for the National League. Lilly is only 1-2 thanks to poor run support, but he has only surrendered 15 hits and 5 walks in his 26 innings and could easily be 4-0 (his worst start a 3 runs in 6 innings). He has also struck out 30 already. Obviously, he stands to regress too, but he looks like he will be a contributor if the cubs ever get their act together.

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Apr 24, 2007 6:24 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Good call

He's been very good. I wonder exactly how much difference the quality of the league (including the fact that there's no DH) has on a pitcher's totals. In today's ESPN.com chat, Rob Neyer had a hard time ranking an NL pitcher #2 in baseball (behind Santana) for that reason alone.

by mark w on Apr 24, 2007 6:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs