As anyone who has listened to the D Backs broadcasts over the last several years know, there used to be a pretty good natured debate between Daron and Mark over the value of the Quality Start statistic. Daron would bring up the QS statistic, usually in relation to a D Backs pitcher when it was advantageous. Gracie, in mock outrage, would rail against the stat, thinking it useless to point out a guy with just 6 IP and 3 ER and a 4.50 ERA as having produced "Quality". Then Daron would dutifully point out that league average ERA was indeed close to 4.50.....and so it went.
Well.....things have changed, and it looks like this "debate" has been settled in Gracie's favor.....at least in the current run scoring environment.
The NL ERA is currently 3.84. That makes a 4.50 ERA look decidedly worse than average. The time has come to scrap the "Quality Start" stat as previously defined. It's time to define a quality start as 7 IP and 3 ER or less. That works out to a 3.86 ERA , so almost exactly current league avg. I think even Gracie would agree that going 7 full innings and no more than 3 ER would be considered Quality.
Here is the list of the current MLB leaders in this newly defined Quality Start. I put the cutoff at 9 so we can get Joe Saunders in there. You guys know I just LOVE selective beginning and end points. ;)
Rk Player #Matching W L ERA CG SHO 1 Justin Verlander 18 15 2 1.38 4 2 2 James Shields 17 10 4 1.40 7 3 3 Cole Hamels 17 12 3 1.57 2 0 4 Jered Weaver 16 11 0 1.07 4 2 5 Roy Halladay 16 12 2 1.79 6 0 6 CC Sabathia 14 12 1 0.99 2 1 7 Felix Hernandez 14 8 3 1.92 2 0 8 Ricky Romero 13 7 4 1.44 3 1 9 Ricky Nolasco 13 6 4 1.75 2 1 10 Dan Haren 13 7 1 1.05 3 2 11 C.J. Wilson 12 7 3 1.92 2 0 12 Carl Pavano 12 6 1 1.94 2 0 13 Justin Masterson 12 4 2 1.39 1 0 14 Tim Lincecum 12 6 4 1.23 1 1 15 Cliff Lee 12 9 1 0.84 5 5 16 Clayton Kershaw 12 10 0 0.94 4 2 17 Tim Hudson 12 9 1 1.81 1 1 18 Trevor Cahill 12 8 3 1.42 0 0 19 Mark Buehrle 12 4 3 2.15 0 0 20 Daniel Hudson 11 8 1 1.82 2 0 21 Yovani Gallardo 11 8 2 1.10 1 1 22 Matt Cain 11 5 1 1.56 1 0 23 Randy Wolf 10 5 1 1.63 0 0 24 Ervin Santana 10 5 2 1.93 3 1 25 David Price 10 7 2 1.63 0 0 26 Ian Kennedy 10 6 0 1.16 1 1 27 Gavin Floyd 10 7 2 1.33 0 0 28 Johnny Cueto 10 5 2 1.31 3 1 29 Chris Carpenter 10 4 1 1.64 2 0 30 Madison Bumgarner 10 5 4 1.57 0 0 31 Josh Beckett 10 6 1 1.18 1 1 32 Joe Saunders 9 6 1 2.02 1 0 33 Anibal Sanchez 9 5 1 1.43 2 1 34 Wandy Rodriguez 9 4 1 1.38 0 0 35 Jair Jurrjens 9 8 0 1.29 2 1 36 Philip Humber 9 5 1 1.80 0 0 37 Luke Hochevar 9 5 1 1.94 0 0 38 Matt Harrison 9 8 0 1.21 0 0 39 Jeremy Guthrie 9 4 5 1.91 2 0 40 Doug Fister 9 2 3 2.21 1 0 41 Scott Baker 9 6 1 1.20 1 0