What is a #1, a #2, a #3, etc.?

I went through the bb-ref pages for each team, identified the
top five starters (by games started, using innings pitched as
the tie-breaker), and then ranked each group of five by ERA+
(which adjusts for league and park). The pitcher with the best
ERA+ was considered to be the #1 starter, the second-best the
#2, and so on. I then grouped all the #1 starters together, all
the #2 starters together, and so on. Here are the results
through the ASB...

#1:
best: Haren (OAK) 187 ERA+
worst: Loe (TEX) 85 ERA+
median ERA+: 131.5
Red Sox's #1: Beckett 130 ERA+ (ranks 8th in AL)
Yankees #1: Wang 127 ERA+ (ranks 9th)

#2:
best: DiNardo (OAK) 158 ERA+
worst: McCarthy (TEX) 80 ERA+
median ERA+: 117
Red Sox's #2: Matsuzaka 117 ERA+ (tied for 7th)
Yankees #2: Clemens 117 ERA+ (tied for 7th)

#3:
best: Gaudin (OAK) 149 ERA+
worst: Jackson (TB) 63 ERA+
median ERA+: 101
Red Sox's #3: Schilling 107 (ranks 4th)
Yankees #3: Pettitte 100 (ranks 8th)

#4:
best: Blanton (OAK) 131 ERA+
worst: Fossum (TB) 60 ERA+
median ERA+: 86
Red Sox's #4: Wakefield 102 ERA+ (ranks 2nd)
Yankees #4: Mussina 92 ERA+ (ranks 5th)

#5:
best: Kennedy (OAK) 97 ERA+
worst: Elarton (KC) 51 ERA+
median ERA+: 72
Red Sox's #5: Tavarez 90 ERA+ (tied for 2nd)
Yankees #5: Igawa 60 ERA+ (12th of 14, i.e., 3rd-worst)

Boy, those A's have a decent group of pitchers, hunh?

For comparison's sake, here's the above median ERA+s
(so far) again, and the 2006 median ERA+s...

2006 2007(so far)
median #1 122.5 131.5
median #2 106 117
median #3 100.5 101
median #4 92.5 86
median #5 78.5 72

The season's only half-over and I have a sneaking suspicion
that the medians on the extremes will tend to regress as
time goes by, but it still gives us a decent sense of what
the 'average' best, second-best, third-best (and so on) pitchers
are like for the American League, for whatever people think
that's worth.

Catch you later.
--Robert Machemer

--
Robert Paul Aubrey Machemer | For each time he falls, he shall
Amherst College, Math & Classics | rise again, and woe to the wicked!
IF22: Cliff wins best film, cast | --Don Quixote (Man of La Mancha)
"Can't complain; had his chance, and in modern parlance, blew it."

On Jul 9, 1:15 pm, "Fred Burton" <fbur....TakeThisOut@starfire.mv.com> wrote:
> "Bob-Nob" <bobno....TakeThisOut@SPaMol.com> wrote in message

> > Boy, those A's have a decent group of pitchers, hunh?
>
> Or maybe ERA+ isn't as good at adjusting for the ballpark
> as advertised.

Well, they've got a staff ERA of 3.87 on the road, only about 10%
higher than their home ERA of 3.52. Given that Boston's the only AL
team with a lower ERA than the A's road ERA, I think that it's fair to
suggest that "those A's have a decent group of pitchers..."