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Come Off The Ledge: An Early look At Starting Pitching

For my single league format leagues, the start of the 2009 season has been a disaster thanks to the implosion of my starting pitching. One league has Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia as anchors with Dana Eveland as an upside play, and the other has Yovanni Gallardo, Tim Lincecum and Johna Santana with Ian Snell and Oliver Pe...I mean Jonathan Sanchez.

To try and soothe my worst instincts (MF this and I quit and MF that and...), I wanted to see what the league pitching averages were STD versus the 2008 ones. As one would suspect given the starts of many of the quality starting pitchers, the pitching is down this season relative to 2008. (FWIW, I included HR/9 as a tease about whether power is coming back.)

 

YEAR LG ERA WHIP HR9
2008 AL 4.35 1.39 1
2009 AL 4.78 1.43 1.18
2008 NL 4.29 1.39 1.02
2009 NL 4.62 1.41 1.09

At least, these figures have soothed my worst instincts. To get some company for my misery, here are the two-start pitchers sorted by Earned Runs. I can't be the only fantasy player in need of calming.  Nor can I be the only one whose best laid pitching plans are currently waylaid.

Starting Pitcher Tm IP ER Hit BB K
Chien-Ming Wang NYA 4.7 15 15 6 1
Scott M Olsen WAS 8 13 14 6 5
Carl Pavano CLE 7 13 14 3 9
Brian Moehler HOU 4 12 15 2 1
Jon T Lester BOS 11 11 18 2 10
Cliff Lee CLE 10 11 17 5 10
Randy Johnson SF 8.7 11 12 4 12
Jeff Suppan MIL 7.7 11 8 7 2
Kevin Slowey MIN 11.3 10 22 1 7
Fausto C Carmona CLE 10 10 12 6 7
Edinson Volquez CIN 9.3 10 13 8 8
Vicente Padilla TEX 9 10 15 4 6
John E Lannan WAS 9 10 15 3 4
Roy Oswalt HOU 13 9 16 3 6
Francisco Liriano MIN 11.7 9 10 4 6
Yovani Gallardo MIL 11.7 9 9 6 9
Ricky Nolasco FLA 11 9 14 2 8
Mike A Pelfrey NYN 10 9 13 6 5
Zach C Miner DET 9 9 15 5 5
Jesse Litsch TOR 9 9 14 1 8
Justin B Verlander DET 8.7 9 10 6 12
Aaron Cook COL 8.3 9 14 2 4
Daisuke Matsuzaka BOS 6.3 9 14 5 5
Tim Lincecum SF 8.3 7 14 6 10