Thursday, August 14, 2008

Do the Brewers have the best pitching staff?

Like I said yesterday, the Padres should have just forfeited last night. Talk about BORRRRRRRRING! Watching CC systematically destroy hitters is becoming one of my new favorite pastimes (and they said he didn't have his "good stuff..." HA!) Assuming Ned Yost doesn't do anything stupid with the upcoming off days and lets CC pitch ever fifth day, we are looking at 8-9 more starts for the big fella.

Is it conceivable that CC could not lose a decision the rest of the way? It'd say it's conceivable. The question is: is 14-0 with a 1.40 ERA and a sub-1 WHIP enough to get the CY Young? Big time conceivable. I love that word.

Anyway, the bigger question to ask as we are the midst of this soul-owning 8 game winning streak: Do the Brewers have the best pitching staff in the NL? Granted, it's a slightly loaded and ambiguous question...so crude analysis will have to do.

Let's head on over to the ESPN stat page, which allows you to basically figure out any stat you want in any situation. Here is what we find out (all rankings based on ERA):
-The Brewers OVERALL have the 3rd best pitching staff in the NL.
-The Brewers OVERALL have the 2nd best starting pitching staff in the NL.

In both instances, the Cubs are ranked ahead of the Brewers. But we are not done yet: we haven't taken into consideration the CC Sabathia effect:
-Since the ALL-STAR BREAK, the Brewers have the #1 pitching staff in the NL, ranking #1 in ERA & #1 in WHIP.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen: We're the best around. We've currently got the best pitching staff in baseball, the best overall pitcher in baseball, and are riding high on an eight game winning streak. It's good times in Brew City.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Assuming Ned Yost doesn't do anything stupid with the upcoming off days and lets CC pitch ever fifth day"

The problem with that statement is that Ned's really itching to give Counsell a start on the rubber here and there, cause he's a "scrappy gamer".:(
Sorry. Still frustrated.

Anonymous said...

Someone disagrees

http://www.wrigleyville23.com/2008/08/bowing-to-our-brewer-overlords.html

Anonymous said...

ah yes good times in brew city... oh except for that whole 3.5 games out of first thing...

wv23 said...

i didn't disagree. i'm just linking to chuckie.

Anonymous said...

The thing Cubs fans don't understand is that while, yes, brewers fans want the team to win the division, the playoffs are the main goal. Am I supposed to be hurt by the 3.5 game comment?

In a Nutsack said...

To answer your question:

No, the Brewers do not have the best pitching staff.

They don't even have the best pitching staff in the NL Central.

wv23 said...

i'm with goldy. i'm not all that concerned about a first or second place finish, as it is all but guaranteed to be in the playoffs.

that said, the cubs have a 7.5 game cushion for a playoff spot, while the brewers havea 4 game cushion.

woziszeus said...

With the addition of CC, the Brewers now have a better pitching staff: to argue against that is asinine.

wv23 said...

asinine?

for the sake of this discussion, i will concede that the brewers are better than the cubs at 1-2 in the rotation (but not by much: since the trade (your timeframe): sabathia era: 1.55 era; harden era: 1.80; z era: 3.43; sheets era: 3.27; head to head: cubs 2-0, brewers 0-2).

but is it asinine to say that dempster and lilly are both better than the brewers 3-4 starters? we'll leave out marquis and whoever is the no. 5 starter for the brewers, as they won't pitch in the playoffs anyway.

and how about the bullpens? who from the brewers would you rather have in the game before gaudin, marmol, wood, smardzija and cotts? maybe one of them?

the bullpen depth and quality really isn't comparable.

so - to question the claim whether the brewers have a better "pitching staff" is far from asinine.

wv23 said...

on that link from espn, it is instructive to see that the brewers have allowed just 18 more earned runs than the cubs - but 30 more runs overall.

In a Nutsack said...

WV, defense is overrated.

FauxNews said...

I think its pretty funny how your arguement is that since the All-Star break the brewers have the best ERA and best WHIP, so that automaticaly your reasoning for why the Brewers have the "Best Pitching Staff". What about the 3 and half months before that? Does April, May and June not count in the standings? and by the way Brews and the Cubs both have a 19-10 record so far since the break and last time I looked it was 4-1 LA in the bottom of the 5th.

Don't get me wrong, I think the Brewers will make the playoffs as the Wild Card, but the Cubs have shown they can kick the crap out of the Brewers at Miller, and the Cubs have gotten a lot better at home since the Brewers have been the Wrigley last (4-2 in Brews favor at the Confines). Cubs have also shown that CC isn't invincible either, given he didn't get the loss, but he also didn't get the win, and the Cubs got the big white flag with the blue W flapping, and that's the one number that matters.