2012’s Top Graded Pitcher Fernando Rodney with a MG Grade of 28
Each year, when the APBA baseball disk comes out, I’ve done a quick and dirty analysis and breakdown of the season set. I’ve broken down the pitching, defense, and some of the offensive particulars. I crunch the numbers and display what information might be interesting to readers.
I’m starting with pitching this year. By my count, there were a total of 663 players rated with a pitching grade. Let’s start by breaking down the pitchers by grade.
Note: I’m including pitchers who have the grade on their card so those with split grades will be counted twice.
First the Starting Pitchers
| Starters | # | % |
|---|---|---|
| A&C | 0 | 0.0% |
| A | 10 | 1.5% |
| B | 57 | 8.6% |
| C | 88 | 13.3% |
| D | 131 | 19.8% |
No A&C starters in the 2012 set.
…and the relievers
| Relievers | # | % |
|---|---|---|
| A&B* | 1 | 0.2% |
| A&C* | 5 | 0.8% |
| A* | 71 | 10.7% |
| B* | 99 | 14.9% |
| C* | 82 | 12.4% |
| D* | 162 | 24.4% |
Tampa Bay Fernando Rodney who had a 0.60 ERA in 74 2/3 IP was the lone A&B reliever.
Here are the strikeout and control ratings
| Control | # | % |
|---|---|---|
| Z | 170 | 25.6% |
| W | 216 | 32.6% |
Like last year, the Ws outnumbered the Zs.
| Strikeout | # | % |
|---|---|---|
| Y | 186 | 28.1% |
| X | 118 | 17.8% |
| XY | 96 | 14.5% |
Here are the ‘Bests’ sorted by Pitching Grade
| Best Relievers | Grade |
|---|---|
| Fernando Rodney | 28 |
| Craig Kimbrel | 24 |
| Aroldis Chapman | 23 |
| Jeremy Horst | 23 |
| Scott Atchison | 22 |
No surprise that Rodney is at the top. He’s an A&B*. The rest are A&C*.
| Best Starters | Starting Grade |
|---|---|
| Kris Medlen | 19 |
| Felipe Paulino | 18 |
| David Price | 18 |
| Jered Weaver | 17 |
| Justin Verlander | 16 |
| Clayton Kershaw | 16 |
| R.A. Dickey | 16 |
Interesting piece of trivia: Atlanta’s Kris Medlen (1.57 ERA in 138 IP, 50G, 12 GS) is a A (A&C*). I don’t think we’ve seen anyone rated with that grade before.
Lowest/Highest
The highest ERA of any Grade A (including relievers) was Chad Durbin’s 3.10.
The highest ERA of any Grade B pitcher was Yu Darvish (3.90). The lowest ERA for a Grade B pitcher was Al Alburquerque’s 0.68 (only 13 1/3 IP).
The highest ERA of any Grade C pitcher was Henry Rodriguez’ 5.83. The lowest Grade C ERA was Rob Scahill’s 1.04.
The lowest ERA for a D pitcher? Well, there were plenty that pitched a couple innings that received a D. But among D pitchers that pitched 50 innings or more, Chris Young had the lowest at 4.15.
Finally, Justin Masterson wins the prize for the highest prize for the best pitching grade for a pitcher with 15 or more losses. Despite his 11-15 record, he got a MG grade of 6 (C).
Some Master Game ratings
| Homerun Letters | # | % |
|---|---|---|
| G | 122 | 18.4% |
| H | 56 | 8.4% |
| L | 105 | 15.8% |
| M | 99 | 14.9% |
Not too surprisingly, the more moderate letters (G and L) were more prevalent than the extreme ones (H and M).
| WP | # | % |
|---|---|---|
| WP0 | 94 | 14.2% |
| WP1 | 145 | 21.9% |
| WP2 | 132 | 19.9% |
| WP3 | 291 | 43.9% |
A miniscule 14% got the WP0.
| # | % | |
|---|---|---|
| BK0 | 473 | 71.3% |
| HB0 | 132 | 19.9% |
The bean ball is still popular.
When time permits, I’ll be doing an overall view of fielding ratings and offensive ratings.
The starting and reliving grades %’s don’t add up to 100 – am I missing something?
I think the percentages are for pitchers in total. so there are 43.2% of pitchers with starting grades and 63.4% with relieveing grades. There are about 6.6% of pitchers with both a starting and relieveing grade.
Darvish has a W control, so that’s why he got the 11 MG grade (B on the BG).
Next point, I wonder how the control and strikeout grades pan out for the total batters faced by the pitchers? Does this vary from last year appreciably? I’ll have time this weekend to play around with that.
BB is correct. It comes out to over 100% because of the darned split grade pitchers.
Are there any r or k rated pitchers?
I don’t believe those ratings are out yet, Curt. I’m not sure exactly why that is.
Predictions are welcome.