MLR Ranked - S4 Pitching Staffs - #25 to 21
#25 - Colorado Rockies
Season 3: #2
Season 2: #8
When you're running a three-pitcher rotation, you need to be really consistent throughout to crack through the top echelons of this list. This is a list of staffs, and the more quality pitchers means better for a team's ranking. Sadly, while the Rockies have a quality arm in Hank Murphy, the downfall of Garrett Evans in his third season pitching is too much to bear. The former first overall pick possesses a 6.30 ERA and a WHIP of exactly 2, which anchors the staff considerably.
The third pitcher, Donkey Kong, hasn't been too good himself, healthily above a 4 ERA with about a strikeout every other inning. Murphy has been the only consistently good arm in his rotation, and even he has an ERA steadily approaching 4, with half his hits allowed being home runs. It's probably Coors.
Garrett Evans / Hank Murphy / Donkey Kong
Innings Pitched: 20.0 / 21.0 / 23.1
Earned Runs Allowed: 21 / 12 / 17
ERA: 6.30 / 3.43 / 4.37
WHIP: 2.00 / 1.00 / 1.89
Strikeouts: 16 / 13 / 12
D/BF: 218.98 / 251.15 / 236.53
pWAR: -0.991 / 1.068 / 0.293
#24 - Cincinnati Reds
Season 3: #18
Season 2: #13
The Cincinnati Reds are a team with a lot of promise. Their offensive core has received a face lift with a few new signings, and their pitching played a part in their extra inning win against the St. Louis Cardinals. It by all means, however, could use a lot of work. Whitt Bass, their longtime rotation stalwart, is riding a rather mediocre season, with a WHIP close to 2 paired with an ERA well above 4. His strikeout rate has been meager, though he does not give up many home runs.
Big Nutty has had a tough start to the season, but a recent complete game against the Baltimore Orioles has made it sweeter. Richard Saks has been tremendous, with 2.72 ERA and 5 frames without an earned run in his last appearance. The Reds don't have terrible pitching, or even bad pitching, and it may get better with time. However, since pitching is so crazy in this league, this is the best I can put them.
Whitt Bass / Big Nutty / Richard Saks
Innings Pitched: 29.2 / 13.1 / 17.2
Earned Runs Allowed: 21 / 12 / 8
ERA: 4.25 / 5.40 / 2.72
WHIP: 1.92 / 1.50 / 1.47
Strikeouts: 15 / 7 / 15
D/BF: 242.73 / 237.49 / 239.85
pWAR: 0.649 / 0.133 / 0.386
#23 - Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Season 3: #1
Season 2: #4
It's a long fall for last season's reigning team. If this were a list of individual pitchers, Penny Lane would be high up there, but the Tampa Bay pitching staff has been a mixed bag. Icna Comit has had a poor season in his 8.1 innings pitched, with an 8.64 ERA and a pWAR over -1. Ed Turner has been his usual self, but hasn't received nearly the amount of playing time you'd expect from one of the best pitchers in league history. Daoud Mata has had a brutal campaign and has hardly pitched at all, leading to concerns over why he isn't playing.
What's left is one high and one low: Penny Lane and Viking Fishbird, the only two players on this lopsided rotation with ample playing time. Fishbird's close-to-5 ERA and his poor WHIP highlight a mediocre and frustrating season for him. Penny Lane has been fantastic, with a 3.27 ERA and a K/9 well over 5, but it isn't enough to salvage this pitching staff a better spot on the list. In short, quantity is not quality, and 3 out of Tampa Bay's 5 pitchers have a lot of work to do.
Viking Fishbird / Icna Comit / Daoud Mata / Ed Turner / Penny Lane
Innings Pitched: 22.0 / 8.1 / 5.2 / 8.1 / 25.2
Earned Runs Allowed: 18 / 12 / 9 / 3 / 14
ERA: 4.91 / 8.64 / 9.53 / 2.16 / 3.27
WHIP: 1.86 / 2.04 / 2.29 / 1.08 / 1.17
Strikeouts: 17 / 2 / 10 / 7 / 23
D/BF: 242.73 / 237.49 / 239.85
pWAR: -0.070 / -1.007 / -0.584 / 0.304 / 1.289
#22 - Milwaukee Brewers
Season 3: #23
Season 2: #18
The Brewers are on the precipice of a really solid rotation. They have a few pretty solid pieces, but no one who particularly sticks out. Tommy Foxconn had a stellar season as a New York Yankee, and seems to be contributing well to his new Milwaukee club, but his reliever status doesn't quite put him in the list of the game's elites. Johnny Hendrix has been serviceable and has contributed a hefty amount of innings, but an ERA over 4 is not fantastic.
That leaves Benjamin Abenduct, a former Expo (I mean the Braves Expos Braves Expos, not the Blue Jays but not really Expos Expos) who is having a migraine of a season with a 4.80 ERA and an abysmal K/6. Nevertheless, he has a lot of potential, and could rebound in the waning hours of the season. GM Hans Ali has contributed some pitching, but 5 innings of relief is not much to go off of. Plus I haven't been counting GMs up until now, so I will continue not to.
Benjamin Abenduct / Tommy Foxconn / Johnny Hendrix
Innings Pitched: 20.0 / 15.2 / 26.2
Earned Runs Allowed: 16 / 5 / 18
ERA: 4.80 / 1.91 / 4.05
WHIP: 1.65 / 1.28 / 1.61
Strikeouts: 8 / 9 / 24
D/BF: 237.49 / 239.85 / 254.38
pWAR: -0.850 / 0.713 / 0.813
#21 - Montreal Expos
Season 3: #3
Season 2: #9
The Expos staff is like Tampa: really messy and tough to evaluate. For starters, how does Jameson Poe have such good pWAR? The dude has one of the worst ERAs I have discovered so far at 5.68, with a lot of walks and a mediocre WHIP, yet holds a pWAR over 0.6. Amelia Black has a 4.03 ERA, meanwhile, with -0.10 pWAR. Where was Poe pitching, in a fucking 1 foot long park? He strikes out a lot of people at least.
Apart from these two, there are a collection of decent pitchers. Haydn Werfer has continued his dominant rookie numbers, with his sophomore season seeing a 2.04 ERA with an incredible 1.04 WHIP. The other two players to pitch amount to 10 total innings, so that's not a lot to go by, but they account for 5 runs in that time frame; not too shabby!
Unfortunately, it's just shabby enough not to break the top 20.
Jasmine Skyla / Jameson Poe / Amelia Black / Haydn Werfer / Bartholomew J. Bottomtext
Innings Pitched: 4.0 / 19.0 / 19.1 / 17.2 / 6.0
Earned Runs Allowed: 2 / 18 / 13 / 6 / 3
ERA: 3.00 / 5.68 / 4.03 / 2.04 / 3.00
WHIP: 1.25 / 1.63 / 1.29 / 1.08 / 1.67
Strikeouts: 2 / 18 / 19 / 14 / 6
D/BF: 246.76 / 231.88 / 221.77 / 245.46 / 234.07
pWAR: 0.159 / 0.651 / -0.010 / 0.819 / 0.212