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11 starting pitchers with ADP of 45 or less (ace zone). With Scherzer and Lester heading to the DL - 7 of the 11 with DL stints and we have a quarter of the way to go yet. The 4 that are DL free so far - Sale, Darvish, Arrieta, and old man Verlander. Strass was just outside top 45 so if you add him - 8 of 12.

Good catch. Pitching has been killing me all year. I finally get a good start or two and then I'll get a starter and reliever suffering a blow-out on the same day. Not sure exactly why, but I've found pitching to be so much more challenging to manage this year compared to other years in recent memory. Honestly, some weeks I'd have been better off picking my starters and reserves blindfolded.

Mike

Spoke too soon. Yu feels left out (per his translator) and is on the way to DL bliss.

The other issue is the lack of reinforcements coming. Tell me one pitcher who has emerged on to the scene this year that you feel great about next year?

If you look at player ratings as a simple guide you have a few retreads like Vargas and Ervin Santana high up but there is not a lot of young quality pitching that was developed this year.

Chest Rockwell wrote:The other issue is the lack of reinforcements coming. Tell me one pitcher who has emerged on to the scene this year that you feel great about next year?

If you look at player ratings as a simple guide you have a few retreads like Vargas and Ervin Santana high up but there is not a lot of young quality pitching that was developed this year.

Really good point. There are no new stud starting pitchers, really. Also, I feel like I need to readjust what I think of as a good pitching performance. I have not done any comparisons, but I'm guessing the pitching ratios for most teams this year are comfortably above last year's ratios. The new normal or a short-lived aberration? Who knows? All I can say is that a six-inning, three-run "quality start" doesn't look all that bad these days.

Mike

Chest Rockwell wrote:The other issue is the lack of reinforcements coming. Tell me one pitcher who has emerged on to the scene this year that you feel great about next year?

If you look at player ratings as a simple guide you have a few retreads like Vargas and Ervin Santana high up but there is not a lot of young quality pitching that was developed this year.

Sean Newcomb!

31 qualified starting pitchers have an ERA below 4.00 this year....
Part of that group are Jose Urena, Jhoulys Chacin, and R.A. Dickey...
Not among them are Justin Verlander, Jose Quintana, and Jon Lester...

Starters who have ERA'S under 3.00...
2014- 22
2015- 12
2016- 9
2017- 6

Starters who have ERA's at 4.50 or below (a quality start)
2014- 79
2015- 67
2016- 56
2017- 44

In four years, baseball has seen more than half their starting pitchers with ERA's of a Qualified Start standard now drop to less than one third.

Chest Rockwell wrote:The other issue is the lack of reinforcements coming. Tell me one pitcher who has emerged on to the scene this year that you feel great about next year?

If you look at player ratings as a simple guide you have a few retreads like Vargas and Ervin Santana high up but there is not a lot of young quality pitching that was developed this year.

Zack Godley
Luis Castillo
Jacob Faria
Jordan Montgomery

Not much after that list

mdecav wrote:

Chest Rockwell wrote:The other issue is the lack of reinforcements coming. Tell me one pitcher who has emerged on to the scene this year that you feel great about next year?

If you look at player ratings as a simple guide you have a few retreads like Vargas and Ervin Santana high up but there is not a lot of young quality pitching that was developed this year.

Zack Godley
Luis Castillo
Jacob Faria
Jordan Montgomery

Not much after that list

That list, alone, makes the point