Let’s take a look at MLB.com’s ridiculous new practice.
MLB.com is not immune to the same market forces that compel us to post for clicks here on McCovey Chronicles. One of the league’s new online practices for this season is to do some sort of weekly power ranking for starting pitchers and it’s a little nutty.
For the moment, let’s forget that this is a San Francisco Giants blog with a firm rooting interest in the starting rotation for the San Francisco Giants (yes, even Blake Snell), and instead focus on what the league’s site is doing.
Starting Pitcher Power Rankings, Opening Day Edition (March 27th)
How Starting Pitching Power Rankings shake out after Strider’s injury (April 10th)
Pair of aces on new teams pace 1st Cy Young poll (April 16th)
This is a lot of polling in a short amount of time, for one thing, and the premises they’re using as a means of redoing the rankings nearly every week feel very sweaty. Obviously, rankings generate discussion/conflict which leads to views and engagement, and now more than ever do we have to factor in the online gambling & fantasy sports aspect of any league behavior, since they are partnered with online gambling & fantasy sports sites.
It feels frenetic, a vibe that doesn’t pair nicely with Major League Baseball. I thought we were supposed to avoid judgments in small sample size? It’s an editorial directive at odds with the nature of the sport and the usual conversations surrounding it.
Okay, with all that out of the way, let’s take a look at how they’ve looked at the Giants’ rotation to start the season. In that Opening Day starter ranking, Webb checked in at #7. After Strider — their #1 on that list — went down, the updated ranking didn’t include Webb at all, because they expanded the field beyond Opening Day starters and used results through April 8th or 9th to make it. Webb, of course, was 0-1 with a 4.86 ERA and had been punked by the Dodgers. So, he is persona non grata from an MLB.com perspective. A bummer, but when you’re the ace of a 3rd Wild Card-at-best team, to be expected.
Jordan Hicks on the other hand? Look, I’m going to break it down like this:
6. Pablo López, Twins
López is trying to build off a breakout 2023 that saw him accomplish a pair of firsts, receiving an All-Star selection and some Cy Young Award votes. The early returns are positive, including an Opening Day win in Kansas City that saw López allow just one run on four hits in seven innings.
7. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers
If you throw out Yamamoto’s MLB debut — probably fair, especially given that it came in the Seoul Series — the 25-year-old has shown exactly why he was such a hotly pursued free agent. His past two starts (10 scoreless innings, five hits, two walks, 13 strikeouts) have proven that Yamamoto can make a seamless transition from Japan’s NPB.
Lopez through April 9th: (2 starts) 1-1, 2.84 ERA (3.07 FIP) | 12.2 IP 9K 1BB
Yamamoto through April 9th: (3 starts) 1-1, 4.09 ERA (1.59 FIP) | 11 IP 15K 3BB
JORDAN HICKS through April 9th: (2 starts) 1-0, 0.75 ERA (1.89 FIP) | 12 IP 11K 1BB
What’s particularly galling about the week two list is their group of voters:
Voters: Chris Begley, Daniel Feldman, Travis Miller, Brian Murphy, Efrain Ruiz, Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru, Andrew Simon, Ismail Soyugenc, David Venn, Tom Vourtsis, Andy Werle
Is this KNBR’s Brian Murphy? If that’s the case, maybe voters weren’t allowed to select players on teams they cover? That’s the only way it would make sense to me. And if this is a different Brian Murphy? How dare you! Jordan Hicks is a great pitcher in this ridiculously small sample size and that should work in his favor.
And when you look at the latest ranking about Cy Young contenders… here in mid-April, the ridiculousness of the entire exercise is made clear: this is about gambling.
4) Pablo López, Twins (2 first-place votes)
López has pitched in some bad luck so far. Just look at his 4.86 ERA compared to a 3.61 FIP. But the underlying metrics are still strong. Perhaps the biggest one is his 35.1 percent chase rate, which has led to a 31.3 percent whiff rate. He’s still averaging about a strikeout per inning and batters are hitting just .118 on his four-seam fastball. In fact, of his four primary pitches – fastballs, sweeper, changeup, curve – the expected batting averages range from a low of .179 (fastballs) to a high of .273 (changeup).
So, “bad luck” can keep pet favorites on the list but knock out track record guys (Logan Webb) and surprise upstarts (Jordan Hicks) if they’re not a Dodger but on the West Coast?
Tomorrow, the week 3 starting pitcher power ranking should come out, which means they’ll have competing lists of Cy Young and starting pitchers and I’m sure we’ll get hitters and relievers at some point, too, but don’t be fooled: there’s no process here, it’s all chaos and can safely be ignored.
Logan Webb and Jordan Hicks are currently two of the top 30 starting pitchers in MLB and 2 two of the top 10 in the National League.