Interesting notes from Baseball Prospectus (subscribers)
Surprise! By this measure, at least, the Devil Rays are having the worst season by a pitching staff in nearly 50 years. Of course, we've but scratched the surface here, all that's possible in one column. On the macro-statistical level, we should consider defense-independent measurements of pitching to try to separate miserable pitching from miserable defense--note that the 2007 Devil Rays also rank last in our database for defensive efficiency, while Clay Davenport's Defense-Adjusted ERA (DERA) shows that the staff is nearly half a run better when considered separately from the defense.
Worst Pitching Staff by RA+, 1959-Present
Rank Year Team RA+
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1 2007 Devil Rays 77
2 1962 Mets 78
3 1996 Tigers 79
4 2005 Devil Rays 79
5 2005 Royals 79
You know who would fix that?
John F'n McDonald.