FanPost

Projecting Cardinals Pitchers In 2015

Here is a brief explanation of this and the starting positional players: http://www.vivaelbirdos.com/2015/3/3/8144337/projecting-cardinals-position-players-for-2015

Averaging together 3 different projections to attain this consensus (I also average the ERA and FIP just for fun):

The inclusion of Jaime Garcia makes things more difficult to comprehend here, as he would be the #3 pitcher by rate stat; and young arms Martinez and Wacha are also not easily predictable. There's even some concern with staff ace Adam Wainwright. So this is not an easy thing to form projections on. I'll just assume that Garcia won't be much of a factor, even though he very well could be.

Rotation Average

A 3.44 projected rotation ERA is pretty damn good in my opinion. Also interesting that the FIP is also projected at 3.44, mimicking what is going on with Wainwright's ERA and FIP. The total WAR for the rotation is 11.7 without Garcia.

Key Players In The Bullpen

Hopefully I did not forget anyone important, but those were the five I expect to see make important contributions to the 'pen in 2015. A 3.19 ERA and 3.33 FIP (3.26 together) and 3 WAR seems pretty decent if not better than average?

Team Pitching

Just for the sake of simplicity, while giving the rotation more weight in the average, I am counting the rotation twice and the bullpen once for an overall average: 3.36 ERA/3.40 FIP/3.38 ERAFIP. Total WAR is 14.7.

I will do the same for the Pirates and Cubs, pick 5 bullpen pitchers to go along with the expected rotation, and maybe look at one more pitcher like Garcia for the other teams.