Here’s a rundown of the AL’s 5th starters:

DET- Galarraga : 3-3, 4.50 ERA, 1.32 WHIP

KC-  Lerew :  1-4,  8.54 ERA,  1.63 WHIP
CLE- Huff :  2-9, 6.06 ERA, 1.68 WHIP
MIN- Blackburn:  7-7, 6.53 ERA, 1.67 WHIP
CHW- Hudson: 1-0, 5.06 ERA, 1.69 WHIP

TB- Davis: 7-9, 4.41 ERA, 1.42 WHIP
BOS- Wakefield: 3-8, 5.58 ERA, 1.34 WHIP
TOR- Eveland: 3-4, 6.45 ERA, 1.88 WHIP
BAL- Bergesen: 3-8,  6.51 ERA, 1.62 WHIP
NYY- Vazquez: 8-7, 4.68 ERA, 1.25 WHIP

TEX- Feldman: 5-8, 5.48 ERA, 1.61 WHIP
LAA- Kazmir: 7-9, 6.92 ERA, 1.63 WHIP
OAK- Sheets : 4-9, 4.53 ERA, 1.39 WHIP
SEA- Rowland- Smith: 1-9, 6.27 ERA, 1.67 WHIP

Galarraga just might be the best in the bunch.   That's why I'm not sold  we need to trade for another starting pitcher.   More than anything, we need  Verlander, Scherzer, Bonderman, and Porcello to pitch like they're supposed to. 

He was getting zero fanfare from most people at BYB before his perfect game.    He's been up and down, but it was unprofessional for some people here to brand him as lucky because of a few underlying statistics from a few years ago.  I think BABIP is Sabermetrics at it's worst.  It cancels out great performances and translates them to luck.  It's just terrible analysis when used as a standalone statistic.   Armando was on his game and making great pitches in 2008.  In 2009, he pitched poorly and lost much of his confidence.  This year he's been pitching remarkably once again.  Getting ahead of hitters and inducing weak ground balls is not luck.  It's a combination of skill and confidence. 

Austin Jackson is the best example for how poor assumptions can be made based on BABIP. 

Time for sabermetric abusers to do the 12 steps and find better ways.