O's now 2nd in Majors in ERA

[bluedog]

With St. Louis getting knocked around a bit tonight by the Bucs, the O's have moved into 2nd in the majors in Team ERA. Only the Nationals remain ahead of Baltimore.

Crazy to think the O's and Nats could meet in a few weeks and by #1 and #2 in ERA.

[Lucky Jim]

Crazy to think the O's and Nats could meet in a few weeks and by #1 and #2 in ERA.

Risking the epic jinx!

[pollaxt]

Go outside, turn around 3 times and spit. Right now.

[bluedog]

Go outside, turn around 3 times and spit. Right now.

Okay I did this. Are we safe now?

Does anyone know how to find out the last time the O's were this high in Team ERA this late in the season? Seems to me it would have to be all the way back to 69 or even earlier.

[Mayor McCheese]

We would be first if we had as soft as schedule as the Nats had in April.

[larrytt]

The O's have a team ERA of 2.83, first in the AL but second in the majors to the Nationals 2.41. However, the Nationals get to pitch to pitchers. Is there a way of getting the team ERA's if you take that out, and (to make things fair) take out the O's pitching to opposing team's #9 hitter? (Presumably you just take out the #9 hitter on both sides.) Technically, that still slightly favors the Nationals since opposing AL teams get to have a DH that might not otherwise play the field, but it's as close as we can get that I can think of.

[Stotle]

The O's have a team ERA of 2.83, first in the AL but second in the majors to the Nationals 2.41. However, the Nationals get to pitch to pitchers. Is there a way of getting the team ERA's if you take that out, and (to make things fair) take out the O's pitching to opposing team's #9 hitter? (Presumably you just take out the #9 hitter on both sides.) Technically, that still slightly favors the Nationals since opposing AL teams get to have a DH that might not otherwise play the field, but it's as close as we can get that I can think of.

I think ERA+ takes care of normalizing.

WAS - 158
BAL - 146

http://www.baseball-reference.com/le...MLB/2012.shtml

[Basketeer]

I'll admit, I was not expecting our pitching staff to be very good this season. Certainly not #2 ERA kinda good.

The year is young, but a lot of promising signs from this crew.

[crissfan172]

I think ERA+ takes care of normalizing.

WAS - 158
BAL - 146

http://www.baseball-reference.com/le...MLB/2012.shtml

I know it tries to normalize, but I have to believe that playing in a bigger ballpark, in the NL East (as opposed to the NL East) does make our ERA more impressive. Perhaps SSS leads to a misleading league average ERA or maybe ERA+ doesn't take into consideration SOS...I really don't know. That being said, while I think our ERA is probably better than theirs taking those factors into consideration, I do believe theirs is more sustainable based just on the stuff their pitchers have.

[bluedog]

I think ERA+ takes care of normalizing.

WAS - 158
BAL - 146

http://www.baseball-reference.com/le...MLB/2012.shtml

Does ERA+ normalize for quality of opponents? If not, I think 12 games against the Yankees and Blue Jays makes the O's ERA more impressive based on strength of schedule alone.