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Our Anonymous League-Best Pitching Staff

As I watched Dan Haren get flipped to the Diamondbacks last winter, and suffered through every rumor that had Rich Harden going one way and Joe Blanton another, I thought back to the basic Moneyball rules of moving toward inequality in markets, effectively buying low and selling high. As we stockpiled a number of young players, including pitchers, I figured that maybe Billy Beane and team had determined what no other team had, that pitchers themselves could be swapped out more easily than thought, and for every lost Dan Haren, you would have a Greg Smith or Dana Eveland to take their spot, and if necessary, you could head to the bullpen and deliver a Chad Gaudin for a string of starts.

As we openly bubble about possibly getting the Big Hurt back again, or speculate on what the future holds for Jack Cust and Mike Sweeney, the pitching staff has very quietly rolled out the league's best ERA, (3.24 vs. Minnesota's 3.70), the league's second highest K/9, and the lowest opposing OPS (.645 vs. .674 for the White Sox), en route to a 13-9 record, good for a tie with the Angels at just over 1/8th through the season.

Maybe, unlike what 29 other ball clubs will tell you, pitching has actually become a commodity, as the A's institution and coaching can take otherwise raw talent and make them look as masterful as Gaudin, Embree and Street did yesterday, when they combined for a six-hit shutout of the Twins.

The success of the A's hurlers thus far hasn't been limited to the starting pitching staff either:

Andrew Brown: 12 scoreless frames, holding batters to a .128 average.
Joey Devine: 7 1/3 scoreless innings, keeping batters to a .154 mark.
Santiago Casilla: 11 innings, posted 14 K's, but zero runs.
(See: Yahoo! Sports)

That's 30 1/3 total scoreless innings from three guys out of the 200 innings the A's staff has posted so far this year. And none of those names will ever show up on SportsCenter.

Greg Smith, in his fourth career start, sporting a 1-0 record and a 3.00 ERA, will take the mound to try and extend the pitching prowess, at 12:35 this afternoon. With any luck, he'll turn over the game to some of the above names and watch them continue their streak.

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definitely appreciate

you singing for our unsung heroes. seems like every day Im musing about the role/fate of Cust or Email or Hannahan, and applauding Smith or Eveland or Cupcakes.
But I have to admit Im guilty of overlooking Devine, CasillaGarcia… and who the hell is Andrew Brown?

by oakinboston on Apr 24, 2008 8:31 AM PDT   0 recs

Every time someone last year said

“The A’s gave away Bradley for nothing,” or something along those lines, I kept saying “Andrew Brown is a good pitcher.” His FIP (fielding independant pitching) last season was outstanding—second only to Street on the A’s. And he has great raw stuff—mid-90s fastball and command of 4 pitches.

I don’t honestly understand why he wasn’t given more of a shot. Two smart organizations—Cleveland and San Diego—gave up on him without ever giving him an extended chance at the big-league level.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Apr 24, 2008 2:00 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Although despite my praise

the article is actually wrong, above. He has given up one unearned run this season.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Apr 24, 2008 2:01 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

sweet.

obviously my comment was partially tongue in cheek, but I was actually kind of curious what his deal is (besides the fact that he came from Milton). so thank you for the edumacation.

by oakinboston on Apr 24, 2008 2:50 PM PDT to parent up   0 recs

One reason for our great pitching stats:

the much-maligned, errorful defense. Yes, that’s right.

What? By fielding percentage, we’re one of the worst defensive teams in the league: our .976 fielding percentage bests only Texas.

But don’t let the errors fool you. We’ve got some very rangy fielders, especially in the infield. We’re making errors on balls that other teams don’t even lay leather on.

The most basic measure of team defense is “defensive efficiency,” which is simply the percentage of balls in play turned into outs. It’s so simple: if the other team lays bat on ball, how often do we turn it into and out? Very often, better than most teams.

By that measure, we’re the fourth best defense in the league, tied with Boston, behind only the O’s, Twins, and Rays.

Our pitching has been good. But our defense is helping, too.

stat-addled alien overlord

by salb918 on Apr 24, 2008 8:46 AM PDT   0 recs

Uh, it's good to put leather on it

bad to throw it away for an error.
Or let a ball trickle past your glove.

Those miscues didn’t cause a run last night, but the night before? well….

by MobiusKlein on Apr 24, 2008 8:49 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

We're not only putting leather on it, we're turning them into outs.

“Percentage of balls in play turned into outs,” not “percentage of balls on which we got leather.”

Maybe I worded it poorly earlier, but I’m being crystal clear here. The miscues maybe allowing runs, but not nearly as many as we’d allow if we didn’t have our rangy fielders.

stat-addled alien overlord

by salb918 on Apr 24, 2008 8:54 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

I agree - with one caveat

Range is great
Judgment is good too.
Good throws kick ass.

DER is some of all of those.

(oh, and from the game last night, I suggest Barton should work on his Scoop skills as well.)

by MobiusKlein on Apr 24, 2008 9:09 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

This is a great observation

although I’m a little suspicious that it might be SSS-influenced. Tampa hasn’t replaced nearly enough of the defenders on last year’s squad (which was mind-blowingly horrible) to convince me that they’re a top defense.

Nonetheless, it’s very helpful for understanding what’s happened so far.

Your 2008 Athletics: It's Nothing Personal.

by PaulThomas on Apr 24, 2008 9:22 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

THT breaks down their DER so far into

+7 for pitchers, +3 for fielders, so I think that means the good DER is largely due to lots of popups/other easy to field balls.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/teams/

The A's colors are green and gold.

by mikeA on Apr 24, 2008 11:16 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

"they" = TB

The A's colors are green and gold.

by mikeA on Apr 24, 2008 11:18 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

I wouldn't trust it much either,

in terms of telling us the quality of the defense, but it does tell us that the defense hasn’t really hurt.

The A's colors are green and gold.

by mikeA on Apr 24, 2008 11:17 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

wait, that's exactly what you said...

The A's colors are green and gold.

by mikeA on Apr 24, 2008 11:18 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

4th also in tht's plus minus.

I said in another thread… Bad OF, but great IF. Overall good.

The A's colors are green and gold.

by mikeA on Apr 24, 2008 11:10 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

We're all on to something here

See my post last night about the rotation. This is the latest incarnation of Moneyball—you can a) throw megamillions at the likes of Zito or even Sabathia and take your chances; or b) you can go with quantity at a bargain price and hope to “surround” the problem of getting people out.

Given that pitchers break down and their year to year performance is much less consistent than position players, in a small to midsize market the choice isn’t even close. We have somewhere between 6-7 guys who are at least replacement level talent to start—and most a lot better than that; we can also bring another 8-9 guys at similar ability to throw in the pen. And the beauty of it is that we have 15 or so arms when at any given point you only need 11-12—so roster flexibility is enhanced. And… the defensive efficiency—even with the likes of Cust and Brown in the lineup and all the errors—is still “better than most”. I tip my hat to Billy Beane—after a couple years in the Kotsay-Kendall wilderness, he has figured out how to game the system again. We’re in a for a very interesting ride the next few years—and very possibly the rest of this season as well.

by madmongoose on Apr 24, 2008 9:17 AM PDT   0 recs

This Just In....

The A’s sign Frank Thomas :) and Mike Sweeney is not dead yet!

I'm not a big wine guy... Where do you grow the BEER?

by str8tarrow on Apr 24, 2008 11:09 AM PDT   0 recs

nice

here is the link for those interested

http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080424&content_id=2579786&vkey=news_oak&fext=.jsp&c_id=oak

"Put some ice on it. After that, there's nothing a few beers won't take care of. " -Pink

by OrlandoAsFan on Apr 24, 2008 11:19 AM PDT to parent up   0 recs

Does the coaching staff get any credit?

Does coaching matter more for pitchers in the minors or MLB? I know all teams scout the teams that they will be playing but are some better then others? I would assume so.

by asfaninpismobeach on Apr 25, 2008 3:16 PM PDT   0 recs

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