September Aces

Pop Quiz time: without reviewing their stat lines, rank Boston's rotation (Beckett, Bedard, Lackey, Lester, Wakefield) according to their ERA over the past 3 starts, from best to worst.

Answers in the comments.

Pop Quiz

OK readers, pop quiz time: among major league pitchers who have made at least six starts this season, how many have an ERA over 8.00? The answer will be in the comments section.

Angels' Aces

There seems to be something of a duel brewing in Anaheim over the question of who is going to be the Angels' ace. Dan Haren and Jered Weaver have each started eight games this season. Over the course of their starts, each has pitched 57.2 innings. Each has given up 12 earned runs. Meaning (do you see where I am going?) each has a 1.87 ERA. Haren has 56 Ks; Weaver has 55. Each has been tagged with two losses already. Both of Haren's losses have come against Boston; Weaver has lost to Boston once and to Oakland once. Otherwise, the only difference between these guys is that Haren has given up a few more hits (41 vs. 39) while Weaver has given up a few more walks (13 vs. 8).

If Beckett is going to be recognized as the best in the league this year, somebody other than the Red Sox will need to be able to get at Haren and Weaver. Until then, if I run into an Angels fan, I'll have to be content noting that opposing batters are batting even lower against Beckett (.174) than against either Haren (.192) or Weaver (.188).