FanPost

Ranking Pitcher Value

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There are a lot of debates about how best to rank pitcher value. Most of it centers around whether pitchers should be valued for what they have most control over, i.e. their peripherals of Walks, Strikeouts, and Homers. Famously, (or infamously depending on your point of view) Fangraphs WAR, which is FIP based handles this end.

Over at baseball reference, their WAR is based on RA-9 (Run against per 9 innings), which is inclusive of all runs allowed, earned and unearned. Defense, opponent strength, and ballparks pitched in are all taken into account.

There is often a very good case for one or the other, depending on the pitcher involved., Sometimes it's obvious that a pitcher has pitched better or worse than his actual run prevention, and fWAR shows that pretty well. However actual run prevention is pretty darn important to a team's chances to win and lose, and you can't just hand wave away actual results.

Fortunately there is a simple way around this with just a little bit of work. Fangraphs also has RA-9 war on their pitcher Value Page (Link set to report for starting pitchers, minimum 20 IP). FG RA-9 WAR is not exactly the same as bWAR, but the ordinal rankings in RA-9 WAR and bWAR are quite similar.

What I decided to do was combine RA-9 WAR and fWAR and average the two. Fangraphs allows you to export the data into excel sheet just by clicking a link, which I did, since that is much much easier than having to combine bWAR and fWAR manually.

This gives you the best of both worlds. Guys that have great run prevention but a little worse peripherals get a bump higher than they get just by fWAR, (i.e. Greinke, Keuchel). Guys with great peripherals but so so run prevention, such as Kershaw and Kluber, get knocked down a few spots. That sort of "feels" right to me. So here are some tables for you guys to look at. I am going to e mail the original spread sheet to Jim, and anyone wants it they can ask him to send it to them.....but it's also easy to do this your self if so inclined.

Top 35 Pitchers in "Average WAR" YTD Thru July 10th

Rank Name Team RA9-WAR WAR AVG WAR
1 Zack Greinke Dodgers 5.9 3.2 4.6
2 Max Scherzer Nationals 4.3 4.7 4.5
3 Dallas Keuchel Astros 5.1 3.2 4.2
4 Sonny Gray Athletics 4.0 3.2 3.6
5 Chris Sale White Sox 3.2 3.7 3.5
6 A.J. Burnett Pirates 3.8 2.9 3.4
7 David Price Tigers 3.5 3.2 3.4
8 Jacob deGrom Mets 3.5 3.1 3.3
9 Chris Archer Rays 2.9 3.2 3.1
10 Clayton Kershaw Dodgers 2.3 3.7 3.0
11 Corey Kluber Indians 2.1 3.8 3.0
12 Gerrit Cole Pirates 3.1 2.7 2.9
13 Johnny Cueto Reds 3.2 2.6 2.9
14 Jake Arrieta Cubs 2.7 2.9 2.8
15 Felix Hernandez Mariners 3.4 2.2 2.8
16 Shelby Miller Braves 3.1 2.3 2.7
17 Clay Buchholz Red Sox 2.1 3.1 2.6
18 Ubaldo Jimenez Orioles 2.7 2.2 2.5
19 Hector Santiago Angels 3.3 1.4 2.4
20 Yovani Gallardo Rangers 3.0 1.8 2.4
21 Michael Pineda Yankees 1.6 3.1 2.4
22 Scott Kazmir Athletics 2.7 1.9 2.3
23 Michael Wacha Cardinals 2.4 2.2 2.3
24 Carlos Martinez Cardinals 3.1 1.5 2.3
25 Lance Lynn Cardinals 2.1 2.4 2.3
26 Francisco Liriano Pirates 2.4 2.2 2.3
27 John Lackey Cardinals 2.3 2.0 2.2
28 Jason Hammel Cubs 2.1 2.2 2.2
29 Jordan Zimmermann Nationals 2.0 2.4 2.2
30 Madison Bumgarner Giants 2.0 2.1 2.1
31 Jake Odorizzi Rays 2.4 1.8 2.1
32 Matt Harvey Mets 2.1 1.8 2.0
33 Cole Hamels Phillies 1.8 2.2 2.0
34 Jeff Samardzija White Sox 1.6 2.4 2.0
35 Jose Quintana White Sox 2.0 2.0 2.0

Worst 20 Starters in MLB YTD. Note 6 Phillies in the worst 20 . Ouch. And we thought the D Backs had issues.

Rank Name Team RA9-WAR WAR AVG WAR
172 Brandon McCarthy Dodgers -0.3 -0.3 -0.3
173 Shaun Marcum Indians -0.3 -0.3 -0.3
174 Jarred Cosart Marlins -0.2 -0.3 -0.3
175 Dillon Gee Mets -0.8 0.3 -0.3
176 Chad Billingsley Phillies -0.6 0.0 -0.3
177 Severino Gonzalez Phillies -0.9 0.2 -0.4
178 Kyle Ryan Tigers -0.2 -0.5 -0.4
179 David Buchanan Phillies -0.9 -0.1 -0.5
180 Kevin Correia Phillies -0.9 -0.1 -0.5
181 Kyle Kendrick Rockies -0.2 -0.7 -0.5
182 Eric Stults Braves -0.7 -0.4 -0.6
183 Kyle Lohse Brewers -1.2 0.1 -0.6
184 Hisashi Iwakuma Mariners -0.5 -0.6 -0.6
185 Ross Detwiler Rangers -0.7 -0.4 -0.6
186 Jason Marquis Reds -1.0 -0.2 -0.6
187 Matt Garza Brewers -1.4 0.0 -0.7
188 Bud Norris Orioles -1.2 -0.2 -0.7
189 Ian Kennedy Padres -1.1 -0.6 -0.9
190 Jerome Williams Phillies -1.4 -0.4 -0.9
191 Sean O'Sullivan Phillies -0.9 -0.9 -0.9

Speaking of our team, here are the D Backs starters.

Rank Name Team RA9-WAR WAR AVG WAR
55 Robbie Ray Diamondbacks 1.4 1.3 1.4
74 Chase Anderson Diamondbacks 1.5 0.7 1.1
109 Jeremy Hellickson Diamondbacks 0.1 0.9 0.5
119 Rubby de la Rosa Diamondbacks 0.1 0.7 0.4
159 Josh Collmenter Diamondbacks -0.2 0.1 -0.1
160 Archie Bradley Diamondbacks -0.2 0.0 -0.1

So, what do you guys think ? Worthwhile approach ? Personally I like it, or I wouldn't have wrote this. I like the balance it presents. I'll probably come back to this from time to time.

[shoe's spreadsheet is available, for the interested, here]