How effective
were 5th starters in 2005?
John Dewan's Stat of the WeekTM
Last year we found that the
fifth starters for playoff teams were simply .500 pitchers. This
suggested that you didn't need a strong fifth starter in order to
succeed. Let's see if that trend continued in 2005:
If you exclude the four best
starters on each Major League team in 2005, the average win-loss record
of the remaining starters is 14-21 with a 5.37 ERA. Not very good. For
playoff teams, the average is 16-16 with a 4.99
ERA. That 16-16 record is
identical to 2004's 16-16 for fifth starters on playoff teams. The ERA
is close as well with 2004 at 5.25.
Bottom line: To be a contender all you need for your "fifth starters" is
.500 pitching.
Here are the numbers for the 2005 playoff teams (starter win-loss
records and ERA excluding the top four starters):
|
Chicago White Sox |
12-11 |
4.90 |
(#10 of the 30 MLB teams)
|
|
Los Angels Angels |
15-12 |
4.84 |
(#9) |
|
New York Yankees |
25-27 |
5.70 |
(#22) |
|
Boston Red Sox |
10-11 |
5.10 |
(#12) |
|
Houston Astros |
13-16 |
5.89 |
(#23) |
|
St. Louis Cardinals |
17-10 |
3.49 |
(#1) |
|
Atlanta Braves |
22-21 |
4.35 |
(#2) |
|
San Diego Padres |
12-21 |
5.51 |
(#19) |
|
Average (playoff team) |
16-16 |
4.99 |
|
(Top four starters on each
team determined as the four pitchers with the lowest opponent OPS among
starters with 12+ starts)
For those Chicago Cubs fans
out there:
Cubs 14-20, 5.24 ERA (#15)
The worst two teams?
|
Tampa
Bay Devil Rays |
11-28 |
6.80
|
(#29) |
|
Cincinnati Reds |
9-19 |
7.13
|
(#30) |
|
