It should come as no surprise, but the Phillies are the one team in baseball with a rotation ERA under 3.00 halfway through the season. Here’s how the starter ERAs rank, 1-30.
1. Phillies - 2.97
2. Athletics - 3.11
3. Mariners - 3.19
4. Braves - 3.30
5. Giants - 3.35
6. Angels - 3.43
7. Padres - 3.616
8. Rays - 3.618
9. Rangers - 3.64
10. Pirates - 3.68
11. Nationals - 3.69
12. Mets - 3.81
13. Yankees - 3.83
14. White Sox - 3.857
15. Cardinals - 3.865
16. Dodgers - 3.91
17. Brewers - 3.96
18. Twins - 4.01
19. Diamondbacks - 4.02
20. Tigers - 4.06
21. Red Sox - 4.07
22. Rockies - 4.12
23. Indians - 4.21
24. Marlins - 4.31
25. Orioles - 4.38
26. Reds - 4.47
27. Blue Jays - 4.48
28. Astros - 4.59
29. Royals - 5.09
30. Cubs - 5.36
Obviously, there’s no accounting for ballpark effects or anything else there.
Those of you with long memories may recall I did an article “ranking the rotations” back in January, going strictly off my fantasy projections. Rating the pitchers by wins, ERA, WHIP and strikeouts, I came up with the following top 30. I’ll present the list, compared to the current ERA rankings.
1. Phillies - 1
2. Giants - 5
3. Dodgers - 16
4. Red Sox - 21
5. Rays - 8
6. Marlins - 24
7. Brewers - 17
8. Cardinals - 15
9. Braves - 4
10. Tigers - 20
11. Angels - 6
12. Athletics - 2
13. Cubs - 30
14. Yankees - 13
15. Rockies - 22
16. White Sox - 14
17. Twins - 18
18. Reds - 26
19. Padres - 7
20. Rangers - 9
21. Mariners - 3
22. Blue Jays - 27
23. Astros - 28
24. Mets - 12
25. Diamondbacks - 19
26. Nationals - 11
27. Orioles - 25
28. Indians - 23
29. Pirates - 10
30. Royals - 29
Not too bad so far. Had I been trying to rank them strictly on ERAs, the A’s and Padres certainly would have been higher, though not quite so high in either case. I didn’t expect the Mariners and Pirates to be nearly as good. The Dodgers and Red Sox have disappointed, but they were ranked higher for non-ERA reasons (the Dodgers because of their quality WHIPs and strikeout rates, the Red Sox because I expected the starters to win a heck of a lot of games).