How strong has the Red Sox pitching been?

Really, really, really strong

“Our pitching has been unbelievable,” Red Sox captain-in-waiting Dustin Pedroia said.

But believe it.

As I wrote in my piece on Billy-Ball.com, Red Sox starters have not yet allowed more than three earned runs in a game this season.

The 2013 AL Starting Pitching 

As you mouse over the the teams, you realize that you want to be as far to the lower left-hand corner as possible. 

• You don't want to be the Angels, whose starters have a 6.07 ERA and a 1.692 WHIP.
• You don't want to be the Blue Jays, whose starters have a 5.92 ERA and a 1.608 WHIP.

But, you want to be the Tigers, whose starters have a 2.70 ERA and a 1.119 WHIP.

And, you want to be the Red Sox, whose starters have a 2.30 ERA and a 1.202 WHIP.

The 2013 AL Relief Pitching 

At this time of the year I am less concerned with the ERA of bullpens because of the small sample, but I am concerned with the number of innings thrown as that reflects short starts and could ultimately result in further wear and tear on the relievers. With relievers I always pay attention to WHIP.

On the chart above, you want to be in the lower left-hand quadrant, not the upper-right.

Royals fans have to be pleased that their bullpen has only had to throw 32.1 IP and been incredibly successful with a 1.113 WHIP.

The Astros bullpen introduction to AL has been less accomodating. They have already thrown 58.0 unproductive innings with a 1.517 WHIP.

Of major concern across the border has to be the Blue Jays bullpen which has been out there for 55.1 innings , with a 1.428 WHIP and having allowed 23 earned runs.

But the Red Sox pen has pitched 42.2 innings, their WHIP is 1.055, and they have allowed just 16 earned runs.

The bottom line is that the Braves today are the best team in baseball and their pitching staff has permitted just 25 ER, the Red Sox are next on the list having permitted only 37 ER.

The formula for succcess

It's a long season, but forget all the talk about chemistry, the game is about pitching and if you pitch well, you will do well and so far that's the Boston formula for success.

Ryan Braun Taking Advantage

Ryan Braun leads all 2011 Postseason participants with 13 hits. His .624 weighted on base average also leads the postseason along with his 25 total bases.  Braun has gone deep twice, one behind six players tied for first, and his two doubles put him in a tie for first with Albert Pujols.

Taking a look at how he's been pitched to so far, it's no surprise he's doing so well at the plate.

Click image to enlarge.

In the regular season, Braun did a lot of damage on balls over the middle of the plate, not surprisingly. But he also killed pitches down in the strike zone, as well as down and in at the knees.  So far in this postseason, pitchers have basically thrown to those locations.

The areas Braun had any difficulty with were pitches up and away and pitches inside.  However, as the heat map indicates, pitchers haven't thrown to those areas much.  In fact, they really haven't thrown Braun much of anything up in the zone at all.

If opposing pitchers continue to throw to Braun's strengths, don't expect his offensive output to slow any time soon.