Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
Mr. Belvidere wrote:
Quote:
------------- YEAR ERA W
1 Bobo Newsom 1938 5.07 20
2 Ray Kremer 1930 5.02 20
3 Vern Kennedy 1936 4.63 21
4 George Earnshaw 1930 4.44 22
5 Rick Helling 1998 4.41 20
6 Lefty Gomez 1932 4.21 24
7 Wes Ferrell 1936 4.19 20
8 Tim Hudson 2000 4.14 20
9 David Wells 2000 4.11 20
T10 Jim Merritt 1970 4.08 20
T10 Montie Weaver 1932 4.08 22
12 George Uhle 1922 4.08 22
13 Lew Burdette 1959 4.07 21
14 Billy Hoeft 1956 4.06 20
15 Jack Morris 1992 4.04 21
16 Andy Pettitte 2003 4.02 21
17 Murry Dickson 1951 4.02 20
What's your point? Every one of those guys had a good year.
A lot of the "run support" nonsense comes from the "Steroid Era" (I think the offense had more to do with the ball than the PEDs, but that's a different discussion). In that game Spahn lost nobody talked about a "lack of run support." That was just that day's game and Spahn got beat. There was no hand-wringing and heartbreak like there is today. He might win 1-0 in his next one. That's baseball. I think you'll hear less about "run support" as the game trends back toward more of a balance between pitching and hitting. Games will routinely be lost 3-2 and the guy who pitched worse will most often be on the losing end.
My point is if I'm starting a team with a pitcher as my first pick and it has to be a pitcher, I go with the guy who has a career 3.00 era but may be a .500 pitcher in his years in the league over a guy that has a 4.00 era that may be 10 games over .500 for the same amount of time.
I gotta go water my daisies. Have a good weekend guys. Starting my staycation.