I'm not going to take issue with that. But I will take issue with the blurb written about the team. In particular, this sentence:
The staff ace (Wandy Rodriguez) has a losing record for his career and an ERA over 4.00.
While technically correct, it is very misleading. As true Astros fans know, Wandy had a very shaky start to his career. However, if you take the last four seasons, you see that Wandy is in the top 20 in ERA (3.40) among pitchers with at least 600 innings. That ranks him above Justin Verlander, Roy Oswalt, and Yovanni Gallardo over the same time period. Using the same criteria Wandy's 15th in K/9 (8.25), tied with Felix Hernandez. He's top 25 in K/BB (2.74). Top 30 in Win Probability Added (WPA). And Wandy has a winning record over that same four year period (45-42) despite pitching on teams that were a combined 63 games under .500.
The worst part about the quote that set me off this afternoon? It was written by an Astros blogger, who should have known better. Et tu?
