>>Apparently I do have too much time on my hands, but I discovered something very odd.
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>>I was looking at the MLB pitching stats on MLB.com. I copied the first page of the pitcher stats to XL and found this oddity. If the pitcher has pitched an incomplete number of innings (i.e. - 30.1 innings), the ERA stats aren't calculated correctly.
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>>ERA is Earned Runs * 9 / Innings Pitched, but in only one case on the first page of pitchers stats does that actually work for incomplete innings pitched (Jimenez).
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>>Anybody know why? See attached jpeg of the sheet.
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>Al is surely correct. Those are thirds of innings, not tenths. Just saving a little space, probably.
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>I see Halladay stumbled his way to a three hit shutout yesterday ;-)
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>Tim Lincecum wound up with a no decision in an almost identical performance his last time out. Bruce Bochy yanked him with one out in the ninth (to tremendous booing), a man on first, and a 4-1 lead. The closer gave it away. It's early but already it looks like these two guys are going to be dueling for the Cy Young.
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>UPDATE: Also, you have highlighted numbers in the "Real ERA" column. The numbers in the "MLB ERA" column appear to be correct, based on spot checking. I have no idea what Real ERA is.

The "Real ERA" column was my column containing the actual calculations. But as you and Al said, the .1 probably isn't really .1 at all.

But see, this is what I was saying about yanking a pitcher to save his arm. What's the point of talking about a great pitcher if he has to be pulled and turns the game over to relievers who go on to lose the game. The starter's real value then is an average between what he achieves on his own and the relievers who have to come in to replace him. When he can finish the game on his own, then he adds more value because he isn't giving the game to relievers who get blown out.

That's the one real kick I had with Cito. He's a pitch counter. That may be ok, even admirable, when we're talking about rookies, but with veterans, let them pitch the game. If they start to get knocked around too much, then ok, yank them, but not before.

I'm not blaming Lincecum for the manager's methods, but if his arm is suspect such that he really shouldn't be allowed to finish games, then his value, imho, is diminished.