For a “deeper” look into the pitching staff this post is pretty shallow. This isn’t for “stat nerds” this is for anybody who knows how to read a players stat profile on ESPN. Go back to radio, you are easily the worst part of this blog. You are the captain obvious of Dallas Sports. I regret wasting my time reading anything you write.

J. Blake, if you don’t like it, don’t read it. Maybe you’ll get upset with me because it’s so obvious, which you obviously hate so much.

Bob, good stuff, if nothing else it’s a good topic of conversation. There was quite a bit of talk earlier this year saying that the pitching hasn’t really improved, just that the defense is so much better that it makes the pitchers numbers come down, which I do believe is true to an extent. The point I want to make though, is that even with the defense being the key to the improvement there are a few factors that can really predict how good a pitcher really is: K/9, BB/9, and HR/9. BAA can be inflated by bad defense or by luck, and that hinges on BABIP (against).

I think K/9 is the least significant of these three factors, because you can get bailed out by your defense, but if you don’t walk batters and you don’t give up the long ball it helps the cause significantly. Obviously (sorry J. Blake, you can stop reading now), the more K’s, the less balls in play to find holes or give the defense a chance to misplay, so K’s go a long way, but if you strike out 20 and walk 10 (would never happen, the pitch count would be around 200) you could still give up a ton of runs based on those free passes given out. You look at all the pitchers numbers from the charts above and you see that the best months were had when the BB/9 and HR/9 are well below average, and that’s exactly why Tommy Hunter is succeeding. He keeps the ball in the park and he doesn’t just give bases away.

If I were to make a suggestion, Bob, I would ask you to expand your charts to include K/BB rate and GO/AO rate (if you keep it on the ground, it’s not going over the fence). These numbers go hand in hand with the factors I keyed on.

Thank you, J. Blake. FINALLY, somebody has the courage to post a criticism on in the comments section of a blog. Bravo, good sir. Rest assured, I have no doubt Bob will be up nights fretting over falling short of your lofty standards. Clearly you are the baseball genius, and I await with bated breath your columns and/or radio show. Such bravery, too. Most people would have stopped reading the post after the first couple of paragraphs once he or she had determined its ultimate value to be “a waste of time”, but not you. No, J. Blake raised the bar for us all by continuing to waste his invaluable time reading this article, I assume so that he could tell the rest of us sports dunces that this, in fact, is not a “deeper” look at the pitching staff after all. Thank you for your sacrifice, brave soldier. Please post the website with your petition to D Magazine to replace Bob’s blog with your own, and I will gladly e-sign it with all of my e-heart. J. Blake: less than a god, but more than a man. Long will your tales be sung. We will teach them to our children, and our children’s children; o sing of the great baseball mind J. Blake, who courageously used an anonymous post to slay the mighty sports brain of the evil Bob Sturm–that serpent who wished only to leave his readers with an insatiable hunger for baseball stats after under-delivering on his promise to provide mental sustenance to “stat nerds”. Most would have accepted Bob’s gathering of Ranger starting pitcher stats into one column and appreciated his statistical analysis, but J. Blake reminds us all that we can find these stats at ESPN. Thanks for holding us all to a higher standard, J. Blake. This has truly been a wake up call, for all of us, I think.

Boy! Are we a testy lot today? I’m glad I took the time to read ALL of the comments. I feel it gave me balance and kept brevity at an arms length. Gosh, Bob, do you have any other brothers? Okay, enough of the Pick-On Bob Day. I think he is blooded beyond repair and might have to go on the DL. YEAH, Bob!!!
Tim says hit ‘send’ twice. Is he hosing me?

Great post. I enjoyed it. McCarthy’s K-rate gives one hope. If he could only stay healthy.

Feldman and Hunter – what can you say? Solid if not spectacular.

I like Millwood, but he really isn’t an ace. On a legit playoff team he’d be the third starter, at best. He’s a grinder, and you’ve got to give him props for guts.

The starting pitching is the story of the season so far. The bullpen has been really good at times (most times), but the implosions have been really bad. Statistically, the BP doesn’t look all that bad but when you look a specific games, the tarnish shows. I’d prefer a more consistent BP then one that may implode in a big game. Don’t know how you capture that in stats.

Didn’t J. Blake get fired in OK before Stoops? Man, that guys couldn’t coach his way out of a paper bag.

At the risk of being shot by Jack Daddy, do the Rangers think about moving Holland to the BP to give a power lefty and another solid long relief option?

Baseball Rookie. I believe it is the number of walks and hits divided by the number of innings pitched.

Bob

So, based on WHIP, your ace is Tommy Hunter and your rotation is:

1.17 ace Tommy Hunter
1.21 #2 Scott Feldman
1.34 #3 Kevin Millwood
1.43 #4-5 Derek Holland
1.43 #4-5 Brandon McCarthy

Interesting to see where Millwood ranks. Although a different discussion it makes me think that Feliz will be a starter next year.

@ JustSaying – That is what many have argued. Pitching is better, but defense is astronomically better this year.

Bullpen help is usually easier to acquire in the off season then starting pitching.

Tim – funny stuff. I love a smart a$$.

@fox – i can appreciate the soundness of that argument. I wouldn’t do it, and I think my arguments on the topic can win the day, but you wouldn’t be out in left field given the big hole in this bullpen (a power left in the 5th-7th innings). Let’s give Holland a couple of more starts and see if Monday was a blip on the radar.