http://m.mlb.com/news/article/162550838/cl...top-10-starters

 

MLB Network's top 10 starting pitchers

1. Clayton Kershaw

2. Jake Arrieta

3. Zack Greinke

4. David Price

5. Chris Sale

6. Max Scherzer

7. Corey Kluber

8. Dallas Keuchel

9. Felix Hernandez

10. Adam Wainwright

Sale is better than Price and Greinke.

Sale is better than Price and Greinke.

 

 

Price was the best pitcher in the AL last year.

Price was the best pitcher in the AL last year.

Sale led the AL in FIP and was .2 fWAR lower than Price (Price made one more start).

John Smoltz had Sale as the 9th best pitcher lol.

John Smoltz had Sale as the 9th best pitcher lol.

Probably because "his mechanics make him a TJ waiting to happen!!!". That's everyone's defense for underrating him, although it makes absolutely no sense as to why he'd be a worse pitcher.

Mine would be:

 

1. Clayton Kershaw

2. Jake Arrieta

3. Chris Sale

4. Zack Greinke

5. David Price

6. Dallas Keuchel

7. Max Scherzer

8. Chris Archer

9. Corey Kluber

10. Felix Hernandez

Kershaw then Sale for me. He was probably the 5th or 6th best pitcher last year but overall he's the 2nd best in the game, imo.

I laugh when I see people putting Arrieta ahead of Sale.

I see Arrieta falling hard this year. Like out of the top 10 hard.

I see Arrieta falling hard this year. Like out of the top 10 hard.

 

Yeah he pitched out of his mind last year.

 

I would withhold judgement until I see his numbers this year.

Probably because "his mechanics make him a TJ waiting to happen!!!". That's everyone's defense for underrating him, although it makes absolutely no sense as to why he'd be a worse pitcher.

 

If they think that, then they are idiots. It's a ranking of best pitchers in the game, not rank the pitchers you'd take if you were starting a franchise.

I see Arrieta falling hard this year. Like out of the top 10 hard.

Yep the only place he goes this year is down.

Arrieta is garbage.

Arrieta is garbage.

 

Yeah.....no

If this is just based on what we think 2016's best pitchers will be, I'm putting King Felix back up near the top. Probably behind only Kershaw and Price. I think 2015 was an outlier and he still has several dominant Cy Young candidate seasons ahead of him.

My personal list:

 

1. Kershaw

2. Sale

3. Greinke

4. Price

5. Scherzer

6. Keuchel

7. Arrieta

8. Bumgarner

9. Hernandez

10. Kluber

My heart's ranking:

 

1) Sale

2-10) Doesn't matter

How do people justify Sale over Greinke and Arrieta ?

 

As stated previously, this is not about who would you pick to start your franchise or who to start your team with. This is about reality right now.

 

Greinke and Arrieta should rightfully be a head of Sale in this ranking. Probably Price too.

My post is garbage.

 

Fixed.

How do people justify Sale over Greinke and Arrieta ?

 

As stated previously, this is not about who would you pick to start your franchise or who to start your team with. This is about reality right now.

 

Greinke and Arrieta should rightfully be a head of Sale in this ranking. Probably Price too.

Not sure about Arrieta. He hasn't proven yet. Only the one year. I would take Sales record.

Kershaw is above sale.

How do people justify Sale over Greinke and Arrieta ?

 

As stated previously, this is not about who would you pick to start your franchise or who to start your team with. This is about reality right now.

 

Greinke and Arrieta should rightfully be a head of Sale in this ranking. Probably Price too.

It's pretty easy if you can look past just one year of data and look at other stats besides just ERA. There's a reason Kershaw is the only SP who is projected to be better than Sale next year. In his career Grienke's ERA is roughly equal to his FIP, and his FIP last year was over a run higher than his ERA. His BABIP was 70 points lower than his career average, his LOB% was an absurdly high 86.5% and almost 12% better than his career average, and there was nothing in his batted ball profile to suggest he was giving up significantly softer contact than usual. Add in his age and it's easy to see why Sale should be above him.

 

Arrieta is a bit of a different case. His BABIP and LOB% are also very likely to regress, but they weren't as extreme as Greinke's, and Arrieta does seem to have the ability to induce rather weak contact. The new Arrieta doesn't have as much of a track record, so he's a bit harder to predict going forward, but Sale certainly has a case there too, depending on your view of advanced metrics. xFIP and SIERA are both much better predictors of future performance than ERA is, and Sale finished 2nd to Kershaw in the MLB in both those metrics in 2015 (Arrieta finished 3rd and 5th). To me it feels like a 50/50 shot as to who will have a better year next season.

Jake Arrieta was better than Chris Sale in 2015.

 

Chris Sale is a better pitcher than Jake Arrieta.

 

Those things are not mutually exclusive.

1-5

 

Kershaw

Price

Grienke

Sale

Scherzer

 

1 year of dominance will put Arrieta at 6 for me but his #2 ranking is Cubbie hype. This guy has had 1 great year and has been around for awhile... let's see if he can do it again.

If you are willing to put Arrieta ahead of Sale after 1 amazing season, then I would assume those same people put Kluber above Sale going in to 2015, and look how that turned out.

 

PS: Not saying Kluber was bad in 2015 by any means, but don't be so quick to assume a Cy Young season can be repeated every year just because it happened once. Kershaw, Felix, Price, Sale, Grienke, those guys have been doing it for many years now. Arrieta, Kluber, Kuechel, these guys likely had 1 big spike versus a steady plateau.