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Starting Pitcher Rankings April 6, 2012

By Bill James

April 5, 2012

Justin Verlander and Roy Halladay consolidated their hold on the 1-2 spots in starting pitcher rankings, while Justin Masterson climbed 9 spots (from 59 to 50) with his strong outing against Toronto. Johan Santana re-enters the listing in 151^st place.

Trying to hit on the right pattern to post these. . . .every day is too often, but I don’t know which day of the week to hit on. Maybe every Tuesday morning? Let’s try Tuesday. . ..

Start of Season	First	Last	Score	Rank
1	Justin	Verlander	571.7	1
2	Roy	Halladay	569.9	2
3	Cliff	Lee	550.0	3
4	Clayton	Kershaw	544.5	4
5	Cole	Hamels	529.7	5
6	Jered	Weaver	521.9	6
7	C.C.	Sabathia	518.4	7
9	Felix	Hernandez	513.2	8
8	Tim	Lincecum	507.3	9
11	Jon	Lester	505.6	10
10	Matt	Cain	503.6	11
12	C.J.	Wilson	495.2	12
13	Ian	Kennedy	495.1	13
14	Dan	Haren	492.9	14
15	Chris	Carpenter	490.9	15
16	Ricky	Romero	488.6	16
17	Yovani	Gallardo	488.1	17
18	James	Shields	485.4	18
19	Josh	Beckett	477.8	19
20	Ted	Lilly	477.7	20
21	Zack	Greinke	476.9	21
22	Colby	Lewis	476.2	22
23	Ubaldo	Jimenez	474.2	23
24	David	Price	474.0	24
25	Tim	Hudson	473.1	25
26	Wandy	Rodriguez	466.1	26
27	Javier	Vazquez	465.4	27
33	Johnny	Cueto	464.5	28
28	Hiroki	Kuroda	463.1	29
29	Ervin	Santana	461.7	30
30	Gio	Gonzalez	461.0	31
31	Matt	Garza	458.4	32
32	Doug	Fister	456.6	33
34	Max	Scherzer	455.1	34
35	Mat	Latos	454.8	35
36	Roy	Oswalt	453.9	36
37	Gavin	Floyd	451.7	37
38	Randy	Wolf	448.9	38
39	Daniel	Hudson	442.0	39
40	Shaun	Marcum	441.5	40
41	Jhoulys	Chacin	441.4	41
42	Anibal	Sanchez	441.0	42
43	Madison	Bumgarner	440.4	43
44	John	Danks	439.9	44
45	Edwin	Jackson	439.3	45
52	Ryan	Dempster	438.8	46
46	Derek	Holland	437.1	47
48	Mark	Buehrle	435.6	48
47	R.A.	Dickey	433.6	49
59	Justin	Masterson	431.7	50
49	Brett	Myers	431.1	51
50	Chad	Billingsley	430.7	52
51	Joe	Saunders	430.0	53
53	Tommy	Hanson	424.8	54
54	Trevor	Cahill	422.9	55
55	Jeremy	Guthrie	422.6	56
56	Bronson	Arroyo	421.2	57
57	Brandon	Morrow	420.9	58
58	Jaime	Garcia	419.7	59
60	A.J.	Burnett	418.8	60
61	Jair	Jurrjens	415.8	61
62	Matt	Harrison	415.5	62
65	Alexi	Ogando	409.0	63
63	Scott	Baker	408.9	64
66	Bud	Norris	408.3	65
67	Jeremy	Hellickson	407.2	66
76	Jason	Vargas	406.9	67
64	Jonathan	Sanchez	405.0	68
68	John	Lannan	404.9	69
69	Carl	Pavano	404.1	70
70	Rick	Porcello	402.0	71
71	Ricky	Nolasco	401.2	72
72	Jeff	Niemann	400.3	73
87	Kyle	Lohse	399.4	74
73	Derek	Lowe	399.1	75
74	Jason	Hammel	398.2	76
75	Freddy	Garcia	398.2	77
86	Brandon	McCarthy	397.7	78
77	Bruce	Chen	397.0	79
78	Michael	Pineda	396.4	80
80	Chris	Narveson	394.8	81
81	John	Lackey	392.4	82
82	Luke	Hochevar	391.1	83
79	Francisco	Liriano	390.3	84
83	Josh	Collmenter	390.2	85
84	Livan	Hernandez	390.0	86
85	Mike	Leake	389.2	87
89	Mike	Pelfrey	387.2	88
90	Randy	Wells	387.1	89
91	Wade	Davis	386.1	90
92	Brandon	Beachy	385.9	91
94	Jake	Westbrook	384.2	92
95	Ryan	Vogelsong	383.3	93
96	Fausto	Carmona	383.2	94
97	Chris	Volstad	382.9	95
98	Ivan	Nova	382.9	96
99	Homer	Bailey	381.9	97
93	Jordan	Zimmermann	381.9	98
88	Paul	Maholm	381.4	99
100	Aaron	Harang	380.5	100
102	Philip	Humber	378.3	101
113	Bartolo	Colon	378.0	102
106	Erik	Bedard	377.8	103
103	J.A.	Happ	377.4	104
104	James	McDonald	377.2	105
105	Brett	Cecil	373.6	106
101	Carlos	Zambrano	372.9	107
107	Tim	Stauffer	368.0	108
108	Chris	Capuano	367.8	109
109	Vance	Worley	367.3	110
111	Guillermo	Moscoso	364.7	111
114	Jeff	Karstens	362.7	112
110	Josh	Tomlin	360.1	113
112	Jonathon	Niese	358.0	114
116	Joel	Pineiro	357.9	115
117	Charlie	Morton	357.3	116
115	Josh	Johnson	356.9	117
118	Jeff	Francis	356.7	118
119	Phil	Hughes	356.6	119
121	Cory	Luebke	353.7	120
122	Joe	Blanton	353.0	121
123	Tim	Wakefield	351.1	122
124	Kyle	Kendrick	349.6	123
120	Clay	Buchholz	349.4	124
125	Dillon	Gee	346.0	125
127	Felipe	Paulino	344.0	126
129	Brian	Duensing	341.6	127
126	Nick	Blackburn	339.5	128
132	Rich	Harden	337.8	129
128	Kevin	Correia	336.8	130
133	Jake	Peavy	336.5	131
134	Zachary	Britton	336.2	132
130	Jason	Marquis	333.8	133
135	Travis	Wood	332.6	134
131	Barry	Zito	331.8	135
137	Edinson	Volquez	331.2	136
136	Brad	Penny	326.8	137
139	Henderson	Alvarez	320.0	138
140	Blake	Beavan	319.5	139
141	Danny	Duffy	318.2	140
142	Aaron	Cook	318.1	141
143	Mike	Minor	317.5	142
145	Rodrigo	Lopez	315.9	143
146	Alfredo	Simon	314.8	144
138	Clayton	Richard	314.4	145
148	Wade	LeBlanc	312.4	146
144	Jorge	de la Rosa	311.1	147
160	Stephen	Strasburg	310.7	148
150	Tyler	Chatwood	310.6	149
151	Kevin	Millwood	310.3	150
Unranked	Johan	Santana	309.7	151
154	Ross	Detwiler	309.1	152
155	Dontrelle	Willis	308.3	153
152	Jo-Jo	Reyes	307.8	154
147	Jake	Arrieta	307.7	155
156	Ross	Ohlendorf	307.6	156
157	Chien-Ming	Wang	306.2	157
149	Tom	Gorzelanny	304.8	158
153	Carlos	Carrasco	303.2	159
	All	Others	300.0	160

COMMENTS (8 Comments, most recent shown first)

bearbyz
Thank you I'm really going to enjoy this series.
9:54 AM Apr 7th

bjames
I appreciate your effort to link to the article. Links to the articles here aren't always going to work, because it's a pay site; people who attempt to click on the link may find that it doesn't go through because of a permission issue. But from my standpoint, I don't really have an issue with it.

HG.. ..The "Stats" section was set up for stuff that is routinely delivered by a computer. This process isn't computerized; I have to figure it myself and then post it manually.

I kind of think Thursday may be the day to post the rankings.
5:55 PM Apr 6th

AbolishABs
On posting schedule I would suggest using one of the traditional travel days (Monday or Thursday)- that way most pitchers will be resting and the data will be more "solid." Posting on Monday gives you an immediate update of what just happened over the past weekend. Posting on Thursday gives you a nice snapshot of what matchups/storylines to look forward to in the coming weekend. Of the two I would recommend Thursday- the world is already full to the brim with Monday recaps of every shape or size.
1:03 PM Apr 6th

hankgillette
Why not put the current ranking in the stats section? That way you could update the list as often as you are willing to, and we could always know where to check for the most current rankings. You could still post an article weekly with your commentary.
10:49 AM Apr 6th

StatsGuru
I'm sorry, I was looking at start of the season rank. You may want to swap the first and last column. Current rank should probably be in the first column.
6:55 AM Apr 6th

StatsGuru
You still have Masterson with a 59 ranking, even though you moved him up in the list.

6:54 AM Apr 6th

jemanji
Hm! It just occurred that, depending on the site you're at, the hyperlinks below might or might not be in accordance with etiquette.

At my site, we encourage linking that furthers the discussion, whether or not the person who linked it also wrote it. But suddenly it dawns that I don't know whether that's the case here.

If the below hyperlinks are not in accordance with site policy, please delete, and my apologies. If they are in compliance, I think you'll find the deployment of Mr. James system to be interesting.

Thanks,
Jeff
.
3:56 AM Apr 6th

jemanji
Along with golf and tennis rankings, there are chess ratings. The Arpad Elo chess system is similar to James' and chessplayers could not live without it. :- )

Here is a discussion of the awesome Starting Pitcher Rankings system from the perspective of a tournament chess player: seattlesportsinsider.com/news/starting-pitcher-rankings-out

And here's an example of a pre-series writeup, the 2-gamer between SEA and OAK, which exploits the new rankings system to add fun to the pre-series buildup: seattlesportsinsider.com/news/seattle-oakland-series-starting-pitcher-rankings

These might not be the best articles that will ever use the James ranking system, but we might be able to claim that they're the first :- )

Cheers,
Jeff
3:47 AM Apr 6th

Starting Pitcher Rankings April 6, 2012

COMMENTS (8 Comments, most recent shown first)

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