Yankee Pitching Analysis

Baseball Analysts recently did a study of strikeouts per 100 pitches (a new stat which they say is a better correlation to the number of runs allowed) and the results of the top 30 are below (H/T Baseball Musings). #3, #4, and #6 (in bold) as pointed out by River Ave. Blues, are now owned by the Yankees. I also highlight Ted Lilly here because I believe that one of Brian Cashman's worst moves was not signing Lilly and signing Kei Igawa a few off-seasons ago. The Yankees are still paying for that move.

The other two italicized pitchers are Mets (or, in Perez's case, probably going to be such). Interesting to see that CC Sabathia is almost 1 K/100 pitches better than Johan Santana. A whole season of pitching in the AL East may nullify that difference, but I still feel it shows that the Yankees may have made the right move in passing on "Brohan" and signing CC.

Also interesting for the Yankees is in the bottom 30 where Darrell Rasner (113 1/3 innings last year) and Sidney Ponson (80 innings last year) reside. Replacing two pitchers with some of the worst K/100 pitches with two of the best is probably a very good move. The biggest concern is that almost everyone in that first grouping have some sort of injury risks associated with them due to the amount of strain put on their arms.

TOP 30

Rich Harden             7.37
Tim Lincecum            7.20
Joba Chamberlain        6.90
CC Sabathia             6.58
Josh Beckett            6.40
A.J. Burnett            6.33
Ervin Santana           6.24
Dan Haren               6.17
Edinson Volquez         6.08
Chad Billingsley        6.05
Scott Kazmir            6.04
Randy Johnson           5.97
Javier Vazquez          5.92
Jake Peavy              5.80
Roy Halladay            5.79
Wandy Rodriguez         5.76
Ricky Nolasco           5.74
Johan Santana           5.73
Cole Hamels             5.72
Ted Lilly               5.68
Jorge de la Rosa        5.67
Zack Greinke            5.67
Ryan Dempster           5.60
Jonathan Sanchez        5.55
Felix Hernandez         5.47
Brandon Webb            5.45
Brett Myers             5.40
Clayton Kershaw         5.38
John Lackey             5.36
Oliver Perez            5.35