During my lunch break on Tuesday, I was scanning the baseball sites I frequent, including one I haven't visited in quite awhile-www.thebaseballanalyst.com. The Baseball Analysts is run by Rich Lederer, and his Tuesday post on ranking pitchers based on strikeouts per 100 pitches interested me. He has been following this metric for a few years now, so I decided to take a look myself. You can take a look at his article here.
Here are the Top 20 starting pitchers based on strikeouts per 100 pitches (I used a cutoff of 150 innings pitched so guys like Stephen Strasburg and Brandon Morrow are not included):
| Player | INN | PC | K | ERA | WHIP | Kd9 | QS | W | K/P |
| Liriano, Francisco SP MIN | 165.3 | 2590 | 178 | 3.266 | 1.246 | 9.69 | 18 | 12 | 6.87 |
| Lester, Jon SP BOS | 182 | 2932 | 196 | 3.264 | 1.192 | 9.69 | 17 | 16 | 6.68 |
| Latos, Mat SP SD | 155.7 | 2448 | 160 | 2.255 | 0.976 | 9.25 | 19 | 13 | 6.54 |
| Weaver, Jered SP ANA | 189 | 3196 | 205 | 3.143 | 1.106 | 9.76 | 22 | 11 | 6.41 |
| Kershaw, Clayton SP LA | 176.3 | 2988 | 191 | 3.011 | 1.242 | 9.75 | 20 | 11 | 6.39 |
| Lincecum, Tim SP SF | 178.7 | 2942 | 188 | 3.677 | 1.327 | 9.47 | 18 | 12 | 6.39 |
| Hernandez, Felix SP SEA | 219.3 | 3298 | 209 | 2.298 | 1.085 | 8.58 | 27 | 11 | 6.34 |
| Hamels, Cole SP PHI | 181 | 2904 | 183 | 3.182 | 1.182 | 9.1 | 18 | 9 | 6.30 |
| Gallardo, Yovani SP MIL | 161 | 2793 | 175 | 3.801 | 1.36 | 9.78 | 14 | 11 | 6.27 |
| Wainwright, Adam SP STL | 200.3 | 2943 | 184 | 2.336 | 1.033 | 8.27 | 22 | 17 | 6.25 |
| Lee, Cliff SP TEX | 184.3 | 2580 | 161 | 3.369 | 1.025 | 7.86 | 15 | 10 | 6.24 |
| Halladay, Roy SP PHI | 221 | 3145 | 196 | 2.362 | 1.05 | 7.98 | 22 | 17 | 6.23 |
| Johnson, Josh SP FLA | 183.7 | 2987 | 186 | 2.303 | 1.105 | 9.11 | 23 | 11 | 6.23 |
| Sanchez, Jonathan SP SF | 164.7 | 2781 | 172 | 3.389 | 1.245 | 9.4 | 12 | 10 | 6.18 |
| Oswalt, Roy SP PHI | 183.7 | 2801 | 168 | 3.087 | 1.073 | 8.23 | 21 | 11 | 6.00 |
| Nolasco, Ricky SP FLA | 157.7 | 2475 | 147 | 4.51 | 1.281 | 8.39 | 16 | 14 | 5.94 |
| Haren, Dan SP ANA | 202 | 3231 | 190 | 4.233 | 1.322 | 8.47 | 17 | 9 | 5.88 |
| Jimenez, Ubaldo SP COL | 190.3 | 3051 | 178 | 2.79 | 1.151 | 8.42 | 22 | 18 | 5.83 |
| Lewis, Colby RP TEX | 170.7 | 2852 | 165 | 3.955 | 1.225 | 8.7 | 16 | 9 | 5.79 |
| Shields, James SP TB | 175.7 | 2849 | 164 | 4.918 | 1.406 | 8.4 | 16 | 13 | 5.76 |
Here is a quote from his article:
As detailed in Strikeout Proficiency (Part Two), K/P has the highest correlation in each of the five run measures (ERA, R/G, ERC, FIP, and DIPS). K/BF has the second-highest correlation and K/IP has the lowest correlation. In any other words, K/P > K/BF > K/IP.
So, Lederer feels that his K/P is a better metric to rank starting pitchers than K/9 or K/IP. To calculate K/P, I used the following formula:
(K/Pitches thrown) * 100
I plan to take a look at this metric again at the end of the season providing year to date data along with second half data. It is not a surprise to see many of the top pitchers in baseball in the table above. I hope the second half data can provide some sleepers for 2011 fantasy drafts.
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