An interesting stat by which to rate starting pitchers

Rating the skill of a starting pitcher is very subjective. Many people look at the big three—Wins, ERA and Ks—in order to get an idea of how well a pitcher is doing. The clear problem is that wins are very reliant on the team as a whole. Also, a pitcher can record a high number of Ks, but still allow long balls, walks, run, et cetera. ERA is a bit better, but a starter can have a low ERA but not go very far into games, which would be an asset for any starter.

There's also the Baseball Writers of America system, whereby they use a random number generator to choose the best pitcher in the NL and AL at the end of each season.

I've always found Quality Starts (QS) to be a good way of rating a pitcher's performance, it has nothing to do with his team's performance but focuses only on a pitcher's performance and ability to go at least six innings into a start.

Recently, I read about a very interesting stat: Game Score. Game Score is designed to measure a starting pitcher's dominance over the game. It's much more in depth than QS, making it more complicated, but it takes a lot more into account. A pitcher starts the game with a "score" of 50. Points are then added or subtracted:

+1 Each out recorded
+2 Each inning completed after the 4th
+1 Each strikeout
-2 Each hit allowed
-4 Each earned run
-2 Each unearned run
-1 Each walk

Therefore, a high GS is good and a low GS is bad. Unfortunately, I can't find any database information for the GS of individual pitchers over the season, but FYI, the Jays currently sit 13th in the league with an average GS of 50.0 dead on. The Giants lead the majors with 54.6 and the Indians are bringing up the rear with 44.3.

UPDATE:

Today Halliday had a GS of 55; Price had a GS of 62.

I'm going to try and keep track of the GS for Jays' pitchers after each game.

The Mendosa Limbo: how low can you go?

The brooms were out in Tampa Bay today as Halladay couldn't stop the sweep. The ALE has taught the Jays a lesson over the past two series and they're 2-8 over their last 10. The Jays now sit 9.5 back of Boston, 9 games back of the second place Yankees and 4.5 games behind the Rays to sit in 4th place in the division. Before the season started, in no way did I expect the Jays to be playoff contenders. Although, April and May did give me so hope that they wouldn't be this far back a week before the All-Star Game—here we are.

No matter what, I'll always be a Jays' fan and I'll watch as many games as I possibly can. The question is, at what point do we dedicated fans neatly file away our hope under 2010? I am personally setting the "Jays' Mendosa Line" at 10.1 GB: if the Jays at any point get to over ten games back, I will officially lose hope in a good season. By "good season" I mean hope that come September, the Jays will be flirting with a wild card spot. They don't have to be in the wild card spot, I just want a little drama—4 games out would be just fine.

Alright, so when the Jays reach the > 10 GB milestone, then what? I'm throwing my hope toward another team. The question is, what team? Well, it sure as hell won't be anyone from the AL, which leads to the NL. Allow me to very quickly eliminate a few teams: Not the fucking Cardinals, because fuck them; not the fucking Dodgers, because that team shits in the same toilets as Manny "my balls are tiny" Ramirez ; and not the fucking Philles because of '93. So there go the current division leaders. I'm not jumping on some retarded bandwagon.

I obviously don't want to start cheering for a team that's in a situation like the Jays, which eliminates a few more teams: Washington (duh), Pittsburgh, Arizona and San Diego. Of the teams are left, I've narrowed it down to three: The Cubs, The Astros and The Mets. Why?

The Mets (40-43)—They've got a really solid team. Question is, are they going to get healthy soon enough? With Delgado on the long term DL and Putz, Reyes, and Beltran on the short term DL, they're missing a good chuck of change. Sitting at 4.5 back of the Phillies in the NLE, they're in tough, but they still have a very legitimate chance of the division or the WC.

The Cubs(41-41)—There's something about their starting rotation. I really like Zambrano; he's done wonders for me in my fantasy league. Former Jay Ted Lilly is having a great season in the number two spot. Rookie Randy Wells is having a great season. Rich Harden is probably their worst starter and is having a very inconsistent season (dropped the son-of-a-bitch from my fantasy team), but he could straighten out at any time. They currently sit 3.5 back of the division leading Cardinals.

The Astros (41-43)—Having starters Roy Oswalt and Wandy Rodriguez, closer Jose Valverde, and position players Michael Bourn and Miguel Tajada on my fantasy team, I've taken advantage of the mlb.tv feature which allows me to switch to games when my players are hitting or pitching. So, over the past few weeks, I've taken in a lot of Huston Astros baseball. They are just simply fun to watch: they've got power, speed and pitching. It's great baseball. They currently sit 4.5 back of the Cardinals in the NLC

For now, I'm not really leaning more toward any of the three. I'm going to continue to watch them on mlb.tv and see how they do.

It really fucking pisses me off to think that if they Jays were in the NLE or NLC as my above group of three, they'd be in serious contention for the post season. Fuck you Bud Selig.

That's one big fucking $15 million mozza ball

I missed most of the Jays' game yesterday, as I got home from work at around 9:30 ast. As soon as I got home, I immediately turned on the ball game and logged onto mlb.com. My eyes went wide as I saw the news, " Blue Jays release struggling Ryan; I just about shit a fucking brick. I then proceeded to dance around the apartment praising God, Jesus, Alla, the fucking devil; basically anyone who'd fucking listen—Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead!

So it cost them $15 million? Finally, money well spent I say. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when interim president and CEO Paul Beeston had to walk into the Rogers' executive offices and ask for the money:

Beeston: So yeah, I'm going to need some money.

Rogers: Did Jose Bautista kill another group of strippers again? Fuck—he really has to stop doing that.

Beeston: Well yeah, but we're just blaming that shit on Mulliniks now. But seriously, we're going to need $15 million and fast.

Rogers: ...

Beeston: Remember when we made BJ Ryan the highest paid reliever in the League? Yeah. Not working out so well for us. We'd really like to get him the fuck out of here.

Rogers: Cash or cheque?

$15 million to send Ryan packing, that's a fucking bargain at double the price. Christ, I'd lick the inside of his jockstrap too, if that's what it took.

Reading what the club management had to say about the release is goddamn priceless. They called him the "12th man on the pitching staff. Gaston also said that he had been considering using Ryan only in "blowout situations." No shit. Considering Hayhurst has been doing well and Downs's boo-boo on his big toe (read as yeast infection in his massive vagina) is now all better, what options did they have?

Best day ever.