1)  Roy Halladay has dropped from second to fourth in this week’s rankings.   Halladay was the #1 starting pitcher in the world in most of 2009 and 2010 and early in 2011.   From the middle of last year until the end of the season he jostled with Verlander for the #1 spot, sometimes ranking first and sometimes ranking second.    He has been pitching well this year, while those around him in the rankings have been pitching just a tiny bit better—and he is still 2/10ths of a point away from ranking second.

                2)  Jon Lester has moved back into the top ten, replacing C. J. Wilson.   The top 10 are now the same as they were at the start of the season, except that Lester has replaced Tim Lincecum.

                3)  Stephen Strasburg is now up to 118^th, since everybody seems pretty focused on Strasburg, and Yu Darvish is 112^th.    Darvish and Strasburg should be in the top 50% of the rankings by the end of May.

                4)  The highest-ranked pitcher who was unranked one month ago is the improbable Jerome Williams.

                5)  I changed the color coding a little.    Green still indicates pitchers who have pitched very well; red indicates those who have not pitched well.   But I didn’t sort those this time based on current ranking vs. ranking last month.  Tyson Ross, for example, has actually improved his score in the last month, since he was barely over 300 a month ago, but he has not pitched well, so he’s in red.  

                6)  There are now three major league pitchers who have made at least five starts and have not yet had a subpar outing:   Cliff Lee, Anibal Sanchez, and Lance Lynn.

                7)  Zack Greinke in the last month has moved from 23^rd to 12^th, Gio Gonzalez from 29^th to 16^th, Anibal Sanchez from 42^nd to 29^th,

                8)  Of the 30 top-ranked pitchers in the majors, Philadelphia has three, the Angels have three, the Dodgers have two, the Giants have two, the Red Sox have two, the Brewers have two, and Tampa Bay has two.    That’s 16; there are 14 teams that have one each:  the Cubs, Reds, Tigers, Yankees, Mariners, Diamondbacks, Blue Jays, Astros, Nationals, Rangers, White Sox, Marlins, Braves and Cardinals.   But St. Louis’ #1 starter (Chris Carpenter) hasn’t pitched.  He’ll probably drop out of the top 30 this week.

                9)  The highest Average Game Scores this year, five or more starts:   1.  Cliff Lee, 2. Matt Cain, 3. Justin Verlander, 4. Ryan Dempster, 5. Lance Lynn, 6. Gio Gonzalez, 7. Carlos Zambrano, 8. Clayton Kershaw, 9. Brandon Beachy (ain’t he peachy?), 10. Anibal Sanchez.