Equivalent Fantasy Average: August pitcher wrap-up

Time for some personal therapy.

So y'all know I have a novel coming out in May. (If you didn't know that, here's the news. (If you're the guy that got upset with me in the comments for posting a picture of a girl in zombie makeup, don't click that link. (Also, you're kind of a jerk.)))

Anyway, it's always been a dream of mine to write a book, ever since I went to a book fair in, like, second grade, and realized that people of any age could write a book. I wrote my first one in the weeks that followed. It was ... not good. It did feature the main characters going to a baseball game in which Will Clark hit, like, three grand slams, so it made me happy, but yeah, not a good book.

The point is that something I wished for for a long time is coming true, so I should be just annoyingly happy about it. And I am happy, but I find myself keeping it in check. In an email thread with a fantasy-writing friend I hadn't spoken to in some months, I made sure to keep my excitement a bit muted, and he was like "Dude, you should be going crazy about this."

Frankly, I probably should. But I'm so used to the other shoe dropping that I often struggle with being excited enough about good things. When I got the acceptance, I was worried it was a fake email. When I got confirmation, I worried it was a mistake. When I got the contract, I worried they'd change their mind. Once I get the book, I'll worry no one will like it, or no one will buy it, or it'll be full of awful typos. I'm really good at worst-case-scenario-ing.

Which brings me to this month's pitcher update of Equivalent Fantasy Average. When I first came up with EFA in the offseason, I worried I was coming up with something stupid. When people responded well to it, I worried I hadn't gone in-depth enough. When the offensive side came together, I realized I needed the pitching side.

Well, now I have the pitching side, and I keep worrying that it's just really stupid and I'm not smart enough to realize that. I don't know. And I'm not saying this to ask you to reassure me in the comments, not really. I am only so good at math, at stats, and I know this could be improved. So, if you're adept and inclined, check over my methodology, and let me know if I'm smart, or if I'm dumb. Primarily if I'm dumb. I wanna learn.

And now the numbers through August:

Kimbrel finally takes over first, after Rodriguez had it the last two months. As it should be. ... Man, Kershaw is good. ... Guys like Rosenthal, Reed and Nathan being this high really speaks to the lack of impact a closer's runs allowed really has. There just isn't the denominator.