TheoShmeo said:
Maybe it takes a humiliating Yankees series to take action. But action they need to take. They simply cannot win with this collection of starters and it's not a "panic" move to realize that and begin to address it.
Porcello:
- Career era: 4.33 (97 era+)
- Career era pre-2015: 4.30 (97 era+)
- 2015 era: 5.34 (78 era+)
Masterson:
- Career era: 4.25 (94 era+)
- Career era pre-2015: 4.24 (94 era+)
- 2015 era: 4.71 (88 era+)
Kelly:
- Career era: 3.59 (106 era+)
- Career era pre-2015: 3.41 (111 era+)
- 2015 era: 5.72 (73 era+)
Buchholz:
- Career era: 3.97 (107 era+)
- Career era pre-2015: 3.92 (109 era+)
- 2015 era: 5.76 (72 era+)
Miley:
- Career era: 3.91 (100 era+)
- Career era pre-2015: 3.79 (103 era+)
- 2015 era: 7.15 (58 era+)
So the five starters' era+ numbers before this season were: 97, 94, 111, 109, 103.
This season, those same starters' era+ numbers are: 78, 88, 73, 72, 58.
So these guys are, relative to their career era+ numbers before 2015: -19, -6, -38, -37, -45.
I mean, just by random chance you'd figure that at least ONE of the starters would be performing AT or ABOVE his career numbers. But nope. All five of them - EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE OF THEM - is underperforming his career era. And all but one of them aren't even close.
So this is the worst-case scenario among the starters being played out. They'd be in first place if they were performing at their career era numbers. But all five are woefully underperforming.
It's depressing. There are two schools of thought, right? (1) They really are this bad and it's going to be an awful season unless they make some moves, or (2) They really are better than this (as their career numbers suggest) so it can only get better from here, right?