Betting baseball's best arms
By The Miller Group.
With the All-Star break upon us, I'm going to give you my two best aces from the first half, and my two worst.
Obviously this is a subjective topic, so feel free to give your own personal picks in the comments section at the bottom of the page.
Here’s my take on the best and worst pitchers in each league after the season’s first half:
The best of the best
American League - Zack Greinke, Kansas City Royals
Greinke may have cooled off recently, but if you're looking at the entire first half of the season, he has to be the man in the AL.
You don't pick up 10 wins pitching for a team like the Kansas City Royals by fluke. Greinke has had to earn each and every one of those victories.
He has allowed the fewest earned runs of any qualifying AL starter with only 30 in 127 1-3 innings of work. The Royals ace ranks third in the league in strikeouts with 129 and sits behind only Edwin Jackson in WHIP (walks + hits per inning) at 1.08.
His 129:21 strikeout to walk ratio is eye catching. There are starters with fewer walks issued, but none can come close to matching Greinke's strikeout numbers.
He's allowed just four home runs, for an average of around one every 32 innings.
Greinke also leads the league in complete games with five, two more than any other pitcher in the American League.
Honorable mentions: Josh Beckett, Roy Halladay, Felix Hernandez, Jered Weaver, Justin Verlander
National League - Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants
It's a two-horse race in the National League, but I'll give the nod to Tim Lincecum over Dan Haren.
Lincecum has arguably been the most consistent pitcher in all of baseball this season, allowing more than three earned runs in only two of 18 starts.
Since June 7th, the diminutive right-hander has been on an absolute tear, going 6-1 with three complete game victories, two of them shutouts. The Giants have won 11 of his last 15 starts overall.
This is a guy that had an ERA of 3.75 back on May 15th, but has worked it all the way down to 2.33.
He's currently leading the senior circuit in strikeouts with 149 and is second to only Joel Pineiro in home runs allowed with four.
The cost of backing Lincecum is starting to get a little ridiculous, but we should still find value betting him on the road, where the Giants have struggled. He's been every bit as good on visiting mounds this season, going 5-1 with a 2.22 ERA.
Honorable mentions: Dan Haren, Matt Cain, Josh Johnson, Adam Wainwright
Cold as ice
American League - Cliff Lee, Cleveland Indians
When you're a defending Cy Young winner, and you own a 4-9 record at the All-Star break, you're going to hear the 'F' word a few times.
“Fluke” is the word many are using to describe Lee’s 2008 campaign. I’m not going that far, but it’s indisputable that he’s the biggest disappointment on the bump this year.
The problem for Lee, is that his stuff has been average at best. He has allowed 16 more hits than innings pitched, and were it not for his terrific control, he would likely be staring at an ERA north of four.
At this point last season, Lee was 12-2. Obviously the expectations were huge entering his Cy Young defense, but Lee is a veteran, and I believe he should have been up to the task of at least being a winning pitcher for the Tribe in '09.
Dishonorable mentions: Scott Kazmir, Jeremy Guthrie, Joe Saunders
National League - Cole Hamels, Philadelphia Phillies
The defending World Series champions are in a similar position they were a year ago, leading the their division by four games entering the All-Star break.
Surprising, they’ve matched the mark without very much help from their ace, Cole Hamels.
The lefty owns a 5-5 record to go along with an inflated 4.87 ERA through 17 starts. He's been on the mound for over 21 percent of the Phillies 38 losses this season.
There was a stretch back in late May to early June where the Phillies won five straight Hamels starts, but even then he was struggling, allowing at least four earned runs on two separate occasions.
It appeared as if Hamels was turning the corner two starts back when he held the Reds to three hits and one run over seven innings.
He followed that start up with a stinker against the light-hitting Pirates, in which he was tagged for five earned runs, including three home runs, in only six innings.
The Phillies expect, and rightfully so, a lot more from their No. 1 starter.
Dishonorable mentions: Aaron Harang, Derek Lowe, Jake Peavy