First of all, these are calculated using 3.2 as the constant, so they will be off by a little bit (something like 0.02 or 0.03) from The Hardball Times' numbers.
Here's the numbers for the starters (relief innings by guys like Bush & Capuano not included):
Milwaukee Brewers
Name Starts IP HR BB K HBP FIP IP/GS Outs/GS
Yovani Gallardo 17 101.0 8 35 93 2 3.49 5.94 18
Manny Parra 2 9.0 0 5 6 1 3.87 4.50 14
Ben Sheets 24 141.3 17 37 106 1 4.07 5.89 18
Chris Capuano 25 135.0 15 51 121 8 4.16 5.40 16
Jeff Suppan 34 206.7 18 68 114 11 4.38 6.08 18
Dave Bush 31 183.3 27 42 133 11 4.53 5.91 18
Carlos Villanueva 6 35.0 4 17 25 0 4.71 5.83 18
Claudio Vargas 23 121.7 22 52 99 2 5.25 5.29 16
Total Starts 162 933.0 111 307 697 36 4.36 5.76 17
The average NL starter had an FIP of 4.61, so only Carlos Villanueva and Claudio Vargas were below average for the league. The average starter also lasted 5.73 innings per start, so for all we heard about the starters not lasting long enough, they were right at league average. Using the league average FIP and the league average IP/GS, a league average start would be something like 5.2 IP, 0 HR, 4 BB, 6 K, 0 HBP (among others, 5.2-1-3-7-0 also works). The quintessential league average start this season was made by Chad Billingsley on September 23.
Anyway, back to the topic of Brewers starters. I think this table shows just how good Yovani Gallardo was. It's hard to replace Ben Sheets and actually be an improvement, no? Speaking of Sheets, it's surprising how close he was to the rest of the pack. It's been covered how the back half of the rotation is better than what their ERA's show, so I won't get into that beyond saying this table is confirmation.
Here's the numbers for guys coming out of the pen:
Milwaukee Brewers
Name Games IP HR BB K HBP FIP
Yovani Gallardo 3 9.3 0 2 8 0 2.13
Francisco Cordero 66 63.3 4 18 86 1 2.21
Brian Shouse 73 47.7 0 14 32 2 2.86
Seth McClung 14 12.0 0 5 11 1 2.87
Manny Parra 7 17.3 1 7 20 1 3.03
Claudio Vargas 6 12.7 1 2 8 0 3.44
Derrick Turnbow 77 68.0 4 46 84 2 3.61
Matt Wise 56 53.7 5 17 43 1 3.81
Mitch Stetter 6 5.0 0 2 4 2 4.00
Scott Linebrink 27 25.3 3 11 25 0 4.07
Greg Aquino 15 14.0 2 5 12 0 4.41
Dave Bush 2 3.0 0 2 1 0 4.53
Ray King 12 6.0 1 3 7 0 4.53
Chris Spurling 49 50.0 6 14 28 2 4.60
Carlos Villanueva 53 79.3 12 36 74 3 4.78
Elmer Dessens 12 15.0 3 3 12 0 4.80
Jose Capellan 7 12.0 2 6 8 0 5.53
Chris Capuano 4 15.0 5 3 11 0 6.67
Grant Balfour 3 2.7 1 4 3 1 11.45
Total Relief 159 511.3 50 200 477 16 3.87
Wow, Grant Balfour sucked. He wasn't quite as bad as Dan Serafini, though, what with his 30.27 FIP. Regardless, Gallardo appears at the top of this list, too, though he only had a few relief innings. Overall, the Brewers bullpen was excellent, easily outpacing the NL average of 4.20 and trailing only San Diego (3.67) and Los Angeles (3.70). The only other team under 4.00 was the Cubs, at 3.88 almost identical to the Brewers.
A big deal is made about the roles played by each reliever, whether it's a closer or setup guy or "6th inning guy." I decided to look at Brewers relievers by FIP after entering in a certain inning. What this means is if Chris Spurling enters in the sixth inning and pitches two innings, he gets a total of two innings in the sixth inning column simply because his "role" was to come into the game in the sixth inning in that situation.
The bullpen FIP in each inning is simply the sum of each reliever's innings pitched after entering in a certain inning time his season FIP divided by the bullpen's total innings pitched after entering in that inning. The bullpen FIP after entering is given by the bullpen FIP in each inning times the bullpen innings after entering in that inning summed up and then divided by the sum of all innings thrown by the pen, excluding those by pitchers entering in extra innings. I sum all innings since once a reliever comes in, it's up to the bullpen to finish the game, obviously. I exclude extra innings because you can only expect to go nine innings.
Here's how the Brewers ended up:
Innings Pitched After Entering In Inning
Name FIP 0-4 5 6 7 8 9 10+
Yovani Gallardo 2.13 7.3 0.0 0.0 2.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Francisco Cordero 2.21 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 4.0 56.3 3.0
Brian Shouse 2.86 0.0 0.0 11.3 19.0 13.3 3.0 1.0
Seth McClung 2.87 0.0 0.0 3.0 7.3 1.0 0.7 0.0
Manny Parra 3.03 9.3 4.7 0.0 0.0 2.3 0.0 1.0
Claudio Vargas 3.44 4.0 2.0 1.7 4.0 0.0 0.0 1.0
Derrick Turnbow 3.61 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 57.3 7.7 3.0
Matt Wise 3.81 2.0 4.0 7.7 23.3 12.0 2.7 2.0
Mitch Stetter 4.00 0.0 2.0 0.0 1.0 0.3 1.3 0.3
Scott Linebrink 4.07 0.0 0.0 0.0 15.7 7.7 2.0 0.0
Greg Aquino 4.41 0.0 0.0 1.0 1.7 4.3 5.0 2.0
Dave Bush 4.53 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.0
Ray King 4.53 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 3.0 2.0 0.0
Chris Spurling 4.60 0.0 0.0 4.7 15.0 12.0 13.3 5.0
Carlos Villanueva 4.78 7.7 7.0 18.7 36.3 6.7 1.0 2.0
Elmer Dessens 4.80 1.0 2.0 0.0 3.0 6.0 2.0 1.0
Jose Capellan 5.53 0.0 4.3 2.0 1.7 2.0 1.0 1.0
Chris Capuano 6.67 15.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Grant Balfour 11.45 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.7 2.0 0.0 0.0
Total Relief 3.87 46.3 26.0 50.0 131.7 134.0 98.0 25.3
Relief FIP in inning 4.46 4.28 4.04 4.07 3.92 3.05 3.99
Relief FIP afterward 3.87 3.80 3.77 3.74 3.55 3.05 3.99
The guys you would expect (long relievers/starters) entered the game before the fifth usually. A mixture of guys entered in the fifth, but surprisingly not often. Shouse, Wise and Villanueva combined for the sixth. Villanueva, Wise, Shouse, and Linebrink were the main culprits in the seventh. Turnbow got the eighth and Cordero was the ninth - but that's nothing you don't already know.
Here's the NL average for each inning, both in the inning and after entering in the inning:
1st-4th inning: 4.78 in inning, 4.18 after entering in inning
5th inning: 4.54, 4.13
6th inning: 4.35, 4.10
7th inning: 4.20, 4.05
8th inning: 4.04, 3.98
9th inning: 3.91, 3.91
Extra innings: 4.15, 4.15
This means the Brewers were better across the board.
Whew, that's a lot of numbers.
