I just spent some time pursuing Baseball-Reference.com to check out some stats and somehow I started looking up Earned Run Average (ERA) for last year. Here is a little taste of what I found .
Based on pitchers that meet the criteria of having at least 1 inning pitched per teams games, these are the three worst ERAs from 2011 and what happened to those pitchers in the off-season.
- 5.30 ERA – Brad Penny: I expect him to put up some good numbers in 2012. He’ll be pitching for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League. At least now I know what team I’ll be in Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2012.
- 5.25 ERA – Fausto Carmona: The off-season for this guy is so bad that he lost his visa because his real name is Roberto Hernandez Heredia, he gained the years of age, and now he is on the Indian’s restricted list. 2012 isn’t shaping up well for Fausto… I mean Roberto.
- 5.15 ERA – AJ Burnett: Well, 2011 was an improvement over his 5.26 ERA in 2012. Not only was he able to find his way out of the Yankees rotation, word on the street is that he turned down a trade to the Angels for Bobby Abreau which would have almost guaranteed him a playoff team. Now it looks like he’s getting sent to Pittsburgh for Garret Jones. I’d rather pitch in Japan then in Pittsburgh.