| Today we are going to look at ERA and find | | | | to have a pitcher in this top 10 is Tampa |
| out just how important having a pitcher with | | | | Bay. Sabathia plays for Cleveland. The |
| a good ERA is for a team. We'll look at the | | | | Indians are playing just under .500 ball |
| top 10 pitchers, ERA wise, in the American | | | | right now. These two are the exception. |
| League. Does knowing having a top 10 pitcher | | | | However, the other 8 pitchers all play for |
| in ERA equate to wins? Does this mean we can | | | | teams that are either in the playoff hunt or |
| pick more winners and take home more cash? | | | | are playing above .500. |
| Let's find out. | | | | |
| | | | Given that 80% of the top 10 plays for |
| Our journey starts in the American League. | | | | winning clubs, I'd say there is a strong |
| Here's a listing of the top 10 pitchers for | | | | coloration between having a top 10 pitcher in |
| ERA as of this writing. | | | | ERA and winning. By the way, the next three |
| | | | pitchers are Schilling with Boston, Bonderman |
| 1. Santana - Minnesota | | | | with Detroit and Escobar with the LA Angels. |
| | | | So, now we have 11 of the top 13 ERA pitchers |
| 2. Verlander - Detroit | | | | on winning clubs. That's 84.6%. The numbers |
| | | | are too strong to ignore. |
| 3. Halladay - Toronto | | | | |
| | | | It's not the end all, but paying attention to |
| 4. Kazmir - Tampa Bay | | | | the ERA of pitchers on a team can help |
| | | | determine their overall ability. Starting |
| 5. Sabathia - Cleveland | | | | pitchers typically pitch 6-7 innings per game |
| | | | on average. That means they account for the |
| 6. Lackey - LA Angels | | | | pitching in 66% to 77% of each game they |
| | | | start. While you can't bet solely on starting |
| 7. Mussina - NY Yankees | | | | pitching, because the bullpen still accounts |
| | | | for up to 33% of the game on average, you can |
| 8. Zio - OAK | | | | begin to get a great picture of the game by |
| | | | looking first at the starting pitching. |
| 9. Haren - OAK | | | | |
| | | | The next time you are deciding who's going to |
| 10. Wang - NY Yankees | | | | win, give some thought to where the pitcher |
| | | | ranks-for ERA-in the league. It just might be |
| The first thing we see is that most of these | | | | the one piece of information that helps you |
| teams are in the playoff hunt. The worst team | | | | rope in another winner. |