2015 APBA by the Numbers: Pitching

Zack Greinke’s 21 MG rating leads all starting pitchers

The APBA Baseball disk is out!  And with the disk come the data. 

Each year after the APBA baseball disk comes out, I do a series of articles which looks at the APBA baseball disk data and summarize it.  It’s not meant to be comprehensive but rather an overall look at the season set.  I start with an article on pitching then one on defense and I conclude with hitting.  I call it “APBA by the numbers”.  This first one is the pitching data. 

Initial thoughts

The first thing I do when I look at the baseball disk data is to look up my own players.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that all my pitchers on my IAL Twin City Thunderchickens who were “on the fence” had gotten the advantage on their grade.  Then I realized, that my co-managers were probably getting the same advantage.  In short, pitching is up in 2015. 

Case in point:  Tony Cingani with a 0-3 record and 5.67 ERA in 33 innings is a CXW.   I can quote other examples like Jeremy Hellickson’s C rating with a 9-12 record and a 4.62 ERA but you will see for yourself.  Pittsburgh’s staff is amazing all by itself.  Or St. Louis’.  I could go on but enough talk.  Here are the numbers. 

The best of the best.  These are highest graded starting pitchers in the 2015 set.

If you get in a jam, these guys can help.  The highest graded relievers in this year’s set. 

For those not familiar with Master Game grades:  1-4 = D, 5-9 = C, 10-14 = B, 15-19 = A, 20-24 = A&C and 25 and up = A&B 

So yeah, that means Greinke and Arrieta are an A&C grade.  Also, Wade Davis and Dellin Betances get the coveted A&B* grade. 

Let’s do some distribution analysis.  How were the grades and ratings distributed among both leagues?

Let’s start with starting pitchers’ grades

Here are the distribution numbers for relievers

Note:  Pitchers with split grades (there were 33 of them in the 2015 set, by the way) are represented in both subsets.

With the disk, we can’t find out about the K rating but other strikeout ratings are revealed to us.  Here they are. 

It seems with control ratings, the W is inching closer to the Z. 

With the Master Game HRA ratings, it’s not surprising that the extreme ratings (M and H) are more rare. 

Something different for this year’s By the Numbers series… what teams fared the best? 

I used a simple metric.  Which MLB teams have the most Grade B or better pitchers?  In addition, how many have the most A* or better relievers? 

First the starters.  Six teams had at least four B or better starting pitchers on their rotation.  However, St. Louis had five.  They were Jaime Garcia, John Lackey, Carlos Martinez, Michael Wacha, and Lance Lynn.  Garcia by the way, is an A (MG 16). 

Which team had the best bullpen?  An amazing nine teams had at least three relievers rated as an A*.  But check out Pittsburgh with an incredible five A* coming out of the pen!  That includes Mark Melancon, Tony Watson, Jared Hughes, Joakim Soria and Antonio Bastardo.

Pittsburgh, the New York Mets and St. Louis all show up on both lists so their pitching look to be pretty solid in APBA’s 2015 set.

Stay tuned for the defense segment next!