2012 Brassball All-Stars - Pitchers

My earlier post discussed the 2012 Brassball All-Star hitters.  Various challenges, including position difficulty, playing time differences and team representation can make the hitters a very difficult All-Star puzzle.  The pitchers shouldn't be as difficult, however.  You don't need to weigh the difference between a slugging first baseman and a defensive star catcher.  Sure, you need to have a bunch of starters and a couple relievers, but that's about it. 


So, let's take a look to see how this year’s All-Star pitching rosters stack up.


Similar to the Weighted OPS (wOPS) I used to rank the hitters, I’m going to use a simple calculation that will give pitchers credit for both the number of innings pitched and the quality of those innings.  Let’s use youngster Jeremy Hellickson and veteran Roy Halladay as examples.


Hellickson has pitched 138 2/3 innings with a sparkling 2.14 ERA.  Halladay, however, has pitched many more innings – 174 1/3, but his ERA is also significantly higher at 2.58.  Are Halladay’s innings more valuable than Hellickson’s superior ERA?  If we divide a pitcher’s innings by his ERA, we’ll get a Weighted ERA (wERA) that gives credit for both innings and ERA.  Doing the calculation for Halladay and Hellickson shows that, by wERA, Halladay’s quantity was more valuable than Hellickson’s quality.

Halladay: 174.33/2.58 = 67.57
Hellickson: 138.66/2.14 = 64.80

Those wERAs rank Halladay #2 and Hellickson #5 in all of Brassball.  Although drawing lines between players at the very top of the game may be difficult, that’s what I’m here to do.
Here are the top 15 starting pitchers, ranked by wERA.  Eight of the 15 will be making the trip to the midsummer classic.

	NAME	ERA	IP	wERA
1	C.Kershaw	2.52	175.33	69.58
2	R.Halladay	2.58	174.33	67.57	All-Star
3	T.Lincecum	2.37	159.67	67.37	All-Star
4	J. Verlander	2.73	181.00	66.40	All-Star
5	J.Hellickson	2.14	138.67	64.80	All-Star
6	J.Weaver	2.64	170.67	64.65
7	J.Shields	2.73	174.67	63.98	All-Star
8	Y.Gallardo	2.61	158.67	60.79	All-Star
9	M.Cain	2.64	160.33	60.73	All-Star
10	C.Sabathia	2.73	164.67	60.32
11	C.Carpenter	2.93	168.67	57.57	All-Star
12	M.Bumgarner	2.76	156.67	56.76
13	C.Hamels	3.18	169.67	53.35
14	M.Garza	2.57	136.33	53.05
15	J.Vazquez	2.80	141.67	50.60

Amazingly, wERA leader Clayton Kershaw won’t be at the All-Star game.  Springfield’s Tim Lincecum ranks third overall, but first in the NL and will be that league’s starter.  Santa Barbara’s Hellickson is the fourth best starter in the AL but got the starting nod, likely because of his 14-1 record, as much as his great ERA. 


Looking at the chart above makes it easy to identify Kershaw and Outlaw Jered Weaver as the two starters who most deserved a nod but were left home.  What about the starters making the trip that were further down the list?  Parkland’s Jon Lester ranked just 33 with a 41.59 wERA.  Cook County’s Anibal Sanchez also made the team with a 42.98 wERA, good for #28 in Brassball.  Sanchez made the team despite throwing just 104 innings, but he was a nearly perfect 12-1 in his 15 starts.


Now, let’s turn to the relievers.  Here it can be a little trickier, as many voters like to reward big save totals as opposed to the best pitching.  Every year, it seems that some of the most effective relief pitchers are somewhat hidden in the seventh and eighth innings, as opposed to the more glamorous role in the ninth.  I re-ran the wERA leader board limiting it to pitchers that made 10 or more relief appearances this season.  Here are the top 15, including saves for good measure:

	NAME	ERA	IP	SV	wERA
1	M.Belisle	1.02	44.00	1	43.14
2	J.Lopez	0.79	34.00	1	43.04
3	J.Venters	1.30	55.33	17	42.56	All-Star
4	S.Marshall	1.24	51.00	2	41.13
5	D.Oliver	0.95	38.00	6	40.00
6	K.Farnsworth	1.14	39.33	1	34.50
7	C.Martinez	1.74	57.00	5	32.76
8	F.Salas	1.55	46.33	28	29.89
9	P.Humber	3.18	93.33	2	29.35
10	S.Cishek	1.66	48.67	1	29.32
11	A.Alburquerque	1.24	36.33	2	29.30
12	S.Romo	1.13	32.00	2	28.32
13	J.Peralta	1.70	47.67	6	28.04
14	S.Casilla	1.52	41.33	3	27.19
15	T.Clippard	2.61	69.00	3	26.44

Amazingly, just one of the top 15 relievers, ranked by wERA is in the All-Star game.  Even more amazingly, it’s not the guy with 28 saves – Superior’s Fernando Salas.  A couple of names jump out from this list.  Obviously Lancaster’s Matt Belisle and Santa Barbara’s Javy Lopez have had standout seasons., even if they don’t get the chance to close for their teams.  Phil Humber, however, has been an absolute workhorse for the Maulers, throwing 93 innings in 41 games.  Given how hard he's been worked so far, Humber may actually prefer a three day vacation to a trip to the All-Star game. 

So, where did the All-Star relievers come from?  Here’s where they rank on the wERA list of pitchers with 10 or more relief appearances.  

Rank	NAME	ERA	IP	SV	wERA
3	J.Venters	1.30	55.33	17	42.56	All-Star
42	J.Smith	2.23	36.33	12	16.29	All-Star
50	B.Sanches	2.91	43.33	3	14.89	All-Star
57	S.Elbert	1.59	22.67	0	14.26	All-Star

Not surprisingly, Hessville, Brew City and Boston did not have many candidates for the All-Star team.  As such, their best choices (Smith, Sanchez and Elbert, respectively) were middle relievers.  Although he has been effective for the Tea Party, Elbert is likely the single least deserving All-Star this year.  He has by far the fewest innings of any All-Star and has only appeared in ten games.  All that said, I’d put my money on Elbert to win the game’s MVP, because that’s just the sort of thing baseball would do to surprise everyone.