Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World

[Edgy MD]

You may have seen how effective Mets pitching has been this season. I was curious as to how much of an illusion it is. When taking into account the improved pitching landscape around the league and the Mets park factor, would this still look like a such and outstanding pitching team?

Yeah, pretty much. I took league ERAs and park factors through Mets history to calculate the team's ERA+ for each year, and this team is so far sitting up there with some of the best Met staves in history, on a pace for the sixth best ever.

As you see from the chart below, this can all change. They are sixth, yes, but pretty close to tenth at the same time. ERA+ clusters, as these things do, around the mean, and we haven't seen the bulk of the hot weather yet.

Still... woo-hoo.

Year	Tm ERA	Lg ERA	PPF	ERA+
1969	2.99	3.60	101	121.61
1970	3.45	4.05	99	116.22
1986	3.11	3.73	96	115.14
1971	2.99	3.47	98	113.73
1985	3.11	3.60	97	112.28
2015	=#0000FF]3.30	=#0000FF]3.84	=#0000FF]96	=#0000FF]111.71
1998	3.76	4.24	99	111.64
1973	3.26	3.67	99	111.45
1976	2.94	3.51	93	111.03
1968	2.72	2.99	101	111.03
1988	2.91	3.45	93	110.26
1990	3.43	3.80	99	109.68
2005	3.76	4.23	97	109.13
2000	4.16	4.64	96	107.08
2010	3.70	4.03	97	105.65
2006	4.14	4.49	97	105.20
1974	3.42	3.63	99	105.08
2004	4.09	4.31	99	104.33
1999	4.27	4.57	97	103.81
2008	4.07	4.30	98	103.54
1995	3.88	4.18	96	103.42
1997	3.95	4.21	97	103.38
1972	3.26	3.46	97	102.95
1991	3.56	3.69	99	102.62
2002	3.89	4.11	97	102.49
2001	4.07	4.36	95	101.77
1975	3.39	3.63	95	101.73
1994	4.13	4.22	99	101.16
2007	4.26	4.44	97	101.10
2014	3.49	3.66	96	100.68
1987	3.84	4.09	93	99.05
1993	4.05	4.05	99	99.00
1989	3.29	3.50	93	98.94
1983	3.68	3.64	100	98.91
1984	3.60	3.59	99	98.73
1977	3.77	3.91	95	98.53
1981	3.55	3.49	100	98.31
1992	3.66	3.51	100	95.90
1996	4.22	4.22	95	95.00
1979	3.84	3.74	97	94.47
2013	3.77	3.74	95	94.24
1982	3.88	3.61	101	93.97
2003	4.48	4.29	98	93.84
2012	4.09	3.95	96	92.71
1980	3.85	3.61	98	91.89
2009	4.45	4.20	97	91.55
1967	3.73	3.38	100	90.62
1978	3.87	3.58	97	89.73
2011	4.19	3.82	96	87.52
1966	4.17	3.61	101	87.44
1965	4.06	3.54	99	86.32
1963	4.12	3.29	105	83.85
1964	4.25	3.54	100	83.29
1962	5.04	3.94	105	82.08

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Impressed by how close to the bottom '11 '12 and '13 are. What a disaster, and what a recovery.

[Edgy MD]

And 2014 hovering around average. And that's with an outstanding pitching season each of the last three years: a Cy Young winner, an All-Star Game starter, and a Rookie of the Year.

[batmagadanleadoff]

This isn't a very scientific method, but it works pretty good all the same: check out how the 4th and 5th best starters are doing to get a rough idea of the whole rotation's performance. Up until about two weeks ago, the Mets staff was off the charts. Gee was rock solid and Niese was in the top 10 in NL ERA. The '86 Mets? 4th starter Sid was good enough to be the # 1 or #2 on a lot of other teams out there and Aguilera was very solid.

[TransMonk]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Impressed by how close to the bottom '11 '12 and '13 are. What a disaster, and what a recovery.

Especially considering a Met won the Cy Young in 2012 and another was the NL starter in the All Star Game in 2013.