Using the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia, I decided to look at the up-to-date stats this season for all big league teams in terms of their team RSAA. Here’s that list:
Rk TEAM RSAA 1 Giants 118 2 Cubs 108 3 Rockies 81 4 Dodgers 76 5 Mariners 73 6 Braves 65 7 White Sox 62 8 Cardinals 60 9 Red Sox 39 10 Marlins 34 10 Rangers 34 12 Tigers 30 13 Diamondbacks 24 14 Phillies 20 14 Twins 20 16 A's 19 17 Yankees 16 18 Rays 14 19 Angels 0 20 Royals -3 21 Reds -8 22 Blue Jays -23 23 Pirates -48 24 Mets -63 25 Astros -83 26 Orioles -99 27 Padres -119 28 Indians -133 29 Brewers -135 30 Nationals -136
As you can see, the Yankees do not rank well here, in terms of team RSAA, placing 17th overall in the majors and 8th overall in the A.L. (just a tick ahead of 9th). So, how about the pitchers on the Yankees, how do they currently rank in RSAA (through last night’s game)? Via the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia, here are those numbers:
PITCHER RSAA IP H/9 IP ERA SO/BB C.C. Sabathia 26 230.0 1.54 1.10 0.92 Mariano Rivera 19 65.1 2.63 2.67 3.89 Phil Hughes 13 85.2 2.10 1.42 1.37 A.J. Burnett 7 202.0 0.96 0.36 -.02 Alfredo Aceves 7 81.2 1.64 0.83 2.10 Andy Pettitte 6 190.1 0.40 0.35 0.02 David Robertson 5 42.2 1.65 1.09 0.67 Chad Gaudin 4 40.2 0.39 0.92 -.42 Brian Bruney 2 39.0 0.94 0.54 -.46 Josh Towers 1 5.1 -0.88 1.09 -.02 Mark Melancon 1 16.1 2.08 0.61 -1.02 Ian Kennedy 0 1.0 9.24 4.46 -1.52 Nick Swisher 0 1.0 0.24 4.46 -1.02 Michael Dunn -1 4.0 2.49 -2.29 -1.02 Phil Coke -1 59.1 2.57 -.09 0.38 Brett Tomko -2 20.2 0.97 -.76 -.45 Edwar Ramirez -3 22.0 -0.98 -1.26 -.80 Jo. Albaladejo -3 34.1 -1.50 -.78 -.71 Jose Veras -4 25.2 1.18 -1.50 -.74 J.Chamberlain -7 156.1 -0.37 -.32 -.29 Damaso Marte -7 13.1 -0.88 -4.99 0.14 An. Claggett -9 2.2 -27.88 -29.29 -1.27 Sergio Mitre -14 51.2 -3.12 -2.33 0.44 Chien-Ming Wang -24 42.0 -4.90 -5.18 -.50
Note:
H/9 IP = HITS/9 IP vs. the league average
ERA = ERA vs. the league average
SO/BB = STRIKEOUTS/WALKS vs. the league average
Wow!
CC Sabathia, Mo Rivera and Phil Hughes combine for +58 RSAA – and, yet, as a team, the Yankees only have +16 RSAA on the season.
What does this all tell us? Well, it says that:
- Damaso Marte, Anthony Claggett, Sergio Mitre, and Chien-Ming Wang were terrible this season.
- CC Sabathia, Mariano Rivera and Phil Hughes were great this year.
- And, everyone else on the Yankees pretty much performed, on the whole, like a league average pitcher.
Does that sound like a World Champion pitching staff to you? Or, does it sound like just another typical Brian Cashman built pitching squad?
Note: This entry was posted at 9:32 am ET today. However, since then, I’ve learned that there was an issue with the CBE where players who debuted in 2009 were added to the database three times, which resulted in those players having their stats tripled in the sorting feature. It’s since been corrected and I have now edited this post (at 4:40 pm ET). See the comments section below to see what was changed in addition to the stats.
14 Responses to “‘09 Yanks Pitchers: 3 Studs & A Cloud Dust”
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October 3rd, 2009 at 10:06 am
And, for those not aware:
RSAA
is a Lee Sinins creation. It is the amount of runs that a pitcher saved versus what an average pitcher would have allowed. It is similar to the statistic Pitching Runs detailed in Total Baseball – except (1) both have different ways of park adjustments and (2) Total Baseball added a procedure to take into account the amount of decisions the pitcher had while RSAA does not. A negative RSAA indicates a below average player in this category.
October 3rd, 2009 at 10:56 am
The Yankees shouldn’t even show up to the playoffs at this point.
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:01 am
The funny thing, however, is that Sabathia and Hughes are specifically Cashman-made moves. You were in favor of bringing Pettitte back in ‘07 and hated how Cashman supposedly jerked Pettitte around this winter. You wanted him to get $16M no questions asked. If he’s a league average pitcher, that move is on you, not Cashman…
I’m merely pointing this out to say that your analysis of Cashman is almost always skewed towards the point you want to prove.
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:20 am
No offense, Steve, but it seems all these stats you’ve been throwing out lately feel as if you are just building up your arsenal in order to attack Cashman, if the Yankees don’t win it all this year. You really don’t have anything to lose in any of this.
If the Yankees win it all then you can just sit back, cheer, and be happy for your team. But if they fail, then that’s when you get to show how smart you are because you “saw” it all coming. All the “signs” were there. Seriously, did Cashman kick your dog? Did he not like your General Joe shirts? What is it?
I see it all coming, I can see the future and you are just warming up.
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:42 am
Funny seeing the Rockies so high on the list. Anyone ever think that would happen?
In any case, I’m confused as to how the numbers are gathered. What condition do you place on the query that says that Hughes has a 1.32 ERA in 80.1 innings? OR CC with a 1.04 ERA in 213.1 innings for that matter?
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:44 am
Ah is that vs. league avg I guess?
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:50 am
Well, that sorta depends on how they actually pitch in the postseason, doesn’t it?
Going into the 2006 playoffs, the Cards starting pitching staff was:
Chris Carpenter 15-8, 3.08
Jeff Suppan 12-7 4.17
Jason Marquis 14-16, 6.02
Jeff Weaver 5-4, 5.18
Anthony Reyes 5-8, 5.06
In addition, they had just lost their veteran closer to a season-crippling hip injury, and were forced to put an inexperienced ex-starter one year removed from major arm surgery and all of 3 career saves into the role.
They benched Marquis, and made Reyes the #4 man.
Does that sound like a World Champion pitching staff to you?
Anyone who thinks that Suppan and Weaver were stone-cold locks to pitch like aces in the post-season, stand on your heads. Suppan had two great starts vs. the Mets, a decent one vs. the Tigers and a poor one in the NLDS against the Padres. Weaver was more ridiculous. Coming into that post-season with a lifetime post-season ERA of 9.72, he made 5 good-to-outstanding starts, won 3 of them, and posted an ERA of 2.43 in nearly 30 innings.
Sometimes, “stuff” happens.
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:54 am
Oh, BTW, last year’s Phillies’ starters had a collective ERA of 4.23, good for 7th in the NL.
The Cubs were 1st; the Brewers were 2nd; the Dodgers were 3rd.
Congratulations to the Champion Cubs, Brewers and Dodgers.
Oops.
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:58 am
And then there was the 2002 Angels, who led the league in ERA on the basis of their bullpen, because their starters were 4th in the league in ERA…behind the other 3 playoff teams. Just behind the Yankees, and well behind Boston and Oakland.
Oops.
October 3rd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Oh, and any stat that shows Mark Melancon and Josh Towers as pitching better than Phil Coke…
…is having severe problems with small-sample size.
And Phil Coke, not matter what his ERA and RSAA say, has NOT had a negative year. He has, in fact, had a good year, with about 5 blowups ruining his ERA, and a scattering of solo HRs that have hurt the team in a few games among his 71 appearances.
In fact, there are 58 AL relievers who’ve pitched 50 innings. The Yanks have 4 of them. All four are in the top 22 in WPA (which does NOT depend on the team scoring runs for them, and making them look better than they are).
The 4 pitchers and their rankings in WPA:
Rivers, 2nd at +3.62 “wins”
Hughes, 11th at +2.46
Aceves, 16th at +2.04
and Coke, 22nd at +0.89
In addition, Andy Pettitte is 25th among 88 regular starters in WPA, and AJ Burnett is 31st.
Sounds like more than 3 good pitchers to me.
October 3rd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Steve,
Since you cherry-pick stats in most of your posts, why don’t you cherry-pick Wang’s -24 out of the picture, boosting the Yanks pitching value? Now the staff looks a little better doesn’t it? Of course you wouldn’t do it here, that would go against your ‘Bash Cash’ plan.
October 3rd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
@ Garcia:
Not that. But I do still say that starting pitching and managerial decision-making are iffy areas as we stand on the threshold of the post-season. Not catastrophes. But iffy, as in, they represent areas of risk in which outcomes could go either way.
October 3rd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Sorry to all but especially Garcia, didn’t get the reply thing right, I was responding to your crack about the Yankees not bothering to show up, but I never seem to manage the reply options well… consider that I have groveled…
October 3rd, 2009 at 4:44 pm
FYI, changes to this entry between was was published at 9:32 am and what was edited at 4:40 pm:
Where it read:
As you can see, the Yankees do not rank well here, in terms of team RSAA, placing 18th overall in the majors and 9th overall in the A.L. (just a tick ahead of 10th).
it now reads:
As you can see, the Yankees do not rank well here, in terms of team RSAA, placing 17th overall in the majors and 8th overall in the A.L. (just a tick ahead of 9th).
Where it read:
CC Sabathia, Mo Rivera and Phil Hughes combine for +52 RSAA – and, yet, as a team, the Yankees only have +3 RSAA on the season.
it now reads:
CC Sabathia, Mo Rivera and Phil Hughes combine for +58 RSAA – and, yet, as a team, the Yankees only have +16 RSAA on the season.