13 Responses to “3+ Pitchers In Season With 25+ GS & ERA+ 100+ Since ’96”

1. Dante Says:
   January 2nd, 2011 at 10:52 am

   Odd not to see the Phillies on there at all, at least in the last 5 years...but they either have not had three pitchers pitch well for 25 games, or had midseason additions pitch well and come up short on games (Oswalt, Lee).

2. Dr. Doom Says:
   January 2nd, 2011 at 12:53 pm

   The only team not appearing on the first list? Ladies and gentlemen, your Milwaukee Brewers!

3. Wine Curmudgeon Says:
   January 2nd, 2011 at 2:10 pm

   Steve Trachsel?

4. Thomas Says:
   January 2nd, 2011 at 2:19 pm

   As a Phillies fan I was interested...

   In 2001 they had three guys with 25 starts and ERA+ over 96 (meaning 2 over 100, the third a 96).
   In 2005 & 2008 they had three over 25, all with ERA+ over 97 (meaning 2 over 100 and the third a 97).

5. DoubleDiamond Says:
   January 2nd, 2011 at 2:30 pm

   @2 I didn't see the Phillies there, either. It looks like there are 29, 30, or even 31 teams represented, because the Angels show up as both Anaheim and Los Angeles, with a large amount of alphabetical separation, the Montreal Expos and Washington Nationals are both on the list, and Tampa Bay shows up as both the Devil Rays and the Rays, but back-to-back and thus easy to be seen as the same franchise. But there are only 27 franchises who have entries on this list.

   In addition to the Brewers and the Phillies, the San Diego Padres are also missing from the first list.

6. Shazbot Says:
   January 2nd, 2011 at 3:06 pm

   That's ironic, considering how all of them seem to be favoring pitching right now.

7. LJF Says:
   January 2nd, 2011 at 7:47 pm

   Um...the Cubs have as many years since 2004 as the Cardinals. Sure wouldn't put tem in the category of "doing a good job putting together starting pitchin staffs."

8. John Autin Says:
   January 2nd, 2011 at 11:01 pm

   At first, I thought Steve's threshold was so low that all we could really tell from this list is which teams have not had good rotations in recent years. After all, more than two-thirds of the teams on the 1996-2010 list had exactly 3 qualifying pitchers. And how much can we tell about a pitching staff just from the fact that 3 pitchers met those minimal standards?

   But when I checked the "3-pitcher" teams from the last 2 years, the results surprised me. Here is the team ERA+ and league ranking for each team:

   2010 Giants: 121 ERA+, 1st.
   2010 A's: 116 ERA+, 1st.
   2010 White Sox: 107 ERA+, 3rd.
   2010 Cardinals: 110 ERA+, 5th.
   2010 Mets: 105 ERA+, 7th.
   2010 Dodgers: 96 ERA+, 12th.
   -- Two excellent staffs, two good staffs, and two that are close to average.

   2009 White Sox: 113 ERA+, 1st.
   2009 Braves: 116 ERA+, 3rd.
   2009 Yankees: 108 ERA+, 4th.
   2009 Cardinals: 112 ERA+, 6th.
   2009 Tigers: 105 ERA+, 6th.
   2009 Rays: 100 ERA+, 8th (tie).
   -- Two very good staffs, 3 good staffs, and one average staff.

   I wouldn't put too much weight on the numbers I presented, since it's less than one-seventh of the "3-pitcher-team" data pool; also, I looked at staff ERA+, not specifically starting pitchers. But since I'm not going to check all or even half the teams, I've seen enough to temper my initial skepticism about the value of the original list.

   Therefore ... all hail, Steve!

9. Frank Clingenpeel Says:
   January 3rd, 2011 at 5:55 pm

   ...and, Surprising us none at all, the Cincinnati Reds managed only a single entry on this list, dating back to the halycon days of the Schott regime.

10. John Autin Says:
    January 4th, 2011 at 11:01 pm

    (Please ignore this -- I'm just testing whether I can post anywhere right now. Three attempts on the Chet Lemon thread vanished when I hit "Submit".)

11. SocraticGadfly Says:
    January 5th, 2011 at 2:59 am

    Raise the ERA+ to 110 and we'd probably sort out some real pitching staffs.

12. redsock Says:
    January 5th, 2011 at 9:40 am

    From 1901-2010, there are only 5 teams with four pitchers with at least 25 GS and an ERA+ over 120:

    1904 Boston Americans (won AL by 1.5 games)
    1913 New York Giants (won NL by 12.5 games)
    1997 Atlanta Braves (won NL East by 9 games)
    2001 Oakland A's (102 wins, but 14 GB Seattle in AL West!)
    2002 Atlanta Braves (won NL East by 19 games)

13. topper009 Says:
    January 5th, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    Please add the 2011 Milwaukee Brewers