Quality Start

I've reviewed in the past the very old data about the QUALITY START being a useful statistic. Simply, quality starts result in about 70 percent winning percentage, and probably higher on a good hitting team.

Among the top 30 pitchers in quality starts, Chicago has 4 (Buehrle, Garland, Garcia, and Contreras), Detroit has 4, Boston has 3 (Clement, Arroyo, Wakefield), the Angels have 3, Baltimore has 2, New York has 2, Texas has 1.

Quality start leaders in the AL (top 5) are Kenny Rogers, Roy Halladay, Mark Buehrle, Jarod Washburn, and Matt Clement, the first three with 12 and the last two with 11. Collectively their record is 41 and 12.

The top five in ERA are Rogers, Bartolo Colon, Halladay, Buerhle, and Chris Young with a collective record of 44-16.

The top five in WHIP ratio are Santana, Halladay, Buehrle, Garland, and Garcia. Collective record 46-13.

Top five in strikeouts are Santana, Halladay, Johnson, Jeremy Bonderman, and Clement. Record 42-17.

The top five in K/BB ratio are Brad Radke, Johan Santana, Roy Halladay, Carlos Silva, and Randy Johnson. Their collective record is 36-21.

The top five in innings pitched are Halladay, Buehrle, Santana, Radke, and Garcia. Collective record is 39-17.

The Sox team ERA has fallen to 4.65, 11th in the AL, and the K/BB ratio is now 7th. Sox starters are ninth in ERA and 6th in K/BB ratio.

Minor doings. Jon Lester pitched seven shutout innings allowing 2 hits and fanning 10 in a Portland 3-2 loss.

Lenny DiNardo got a victory allowing a run in six innings, and Dustin Pedroia is at .308 after three games with the PawSox and had a stolen base tonight in a 5-1 win.