Starting Pitcher Performance

I've been a little preoccupied with starting pitcher performance lately. I have played in the '60s, '70s and '80s leagues with $80 million caps, and for the most part it seems starting pitchers have higher ERAs and WHIPs than their actual performance. I can think of a few reasons for this: 1) a 12-team league has a better pool of offensive talent than the entire league, 2) NL starters in DH leagues face better hitters, 3) pitchers who played in pitchers parks who are drafted to play in hitters parks for half their games will be affected, and 4) pitchers like Jim Palmer, who played with world class defense (Brooks Robinson, Mark Belanger and Paul Blair) may be drafted on teams with less than stellar play, especially up the middle.

I'm curious to know if anyone has experienced better than expected performance from pitchers who played in hitters parks and got drafted to play on teams with a pitchers park, or if a team of 1s up the middle defensively has significantly helped a pitcher's performance if he actually played with less talented defense in real life?

Any thoughts will be appreciated.

Wish I could help, but I can't recall any starting pitchers significantly outperforming their actual stats over the course of a season. I admit, I play mostly ATG so pitchers are up against much stronger lineups than they'd ever faced historically - my guess is that's going to be the case most of the time. A possible exception would be in low-cap, 24 team leagues - but I've played a few of those and never spotted a starting pitcher turning in a career season. Now if you'll go for strong individual games within a season, sure - I had a three-no-no season from Pedro once (one a perfecto), but his record was a little worse than his actual for the year.

This dynamic is inherent to Strat. If you put all the X-chances on the batter's cards, then you could make a pitcher pretty much unhittable and as far as I can see that's about the only thing that would change that dynamic

I had a three-no-no season from Pedro once (one a perfecto), but his record was a little worse than his actual for the year.

Thanks for sharing, guys. Three no-no's by Pedro in a season is incredible! The odds of that happening - even for Pedro - in any Strat season or league have to be astronomical. I had Jim Hardin throw a perfect game in a '60's season, which was pretty amazing given he had no dominant years. It's the only no-hitter I've seen.

I was just noodling around to see the ballpark effect on pitcher performance and one stands out in my current league, which has played 66 games. In 16 starts, Sonny Siebert has given up 16 home runs, which puts him tied for fifth for home runs allowed. But he's actually had 26 opportunities to give up a ballpark effect home run, and only 4 actually cleared the fence! His 26 opportunities are 11 more than the next closest starter, John Candelaria, at 15. I have no idea why he'd have so many more opportunities than anyone else, but it seems he's benefiting from pitching in the Oakland Coliseum and its 1-3 rating on both sides. Oddly, though, his home-road splits show he's tougher on the road overall. Hard to figure.

How about this from Jim Bibby

Playing in the Vet(strong hitters park)

Won 6 more games with a .5 lower ERA then in real life

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/4917

or this from Fernando...went from LA to Exhibition....not radical...but his Strat ERA is .7 lower

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/61183

Tanaka on this team had a lower era and a much lower WHIP.

http://onlinegames.strat-o-matic.com/team/sim/1404375

From my limited experience, it seems that there are a large preponderance of hiters parks over pitchers parks selected in SOM leagues. I think a lot of the team owners enjoy a more offensive league.

That and a higher level of offensive talent as the initial poster suggested would of course translate to higher than normal ERA's.