Kershaw Dominates Run Prevention Leader Boards in NL

Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw was the NL run prevention leader in 2014
(Photo credit: Joe Skipper, Reuters)

Over the weekend, I posted the American League run prevention leaders.  Now, for the National League. 

There is no surefire way to determine the best pitchers in the league, but a pitcher's job is to prevent runs.  So, it's useful to estimate how many runs pitchers saved their teams compared to an average pitcher.  In the past, I have explored four different ways to do this:    

• Pitching Runs -  Runs Saved Above Average based on innings and runs allowed. 

• Adjusted Pitching Runs - Pitching Runs minus estimated Runs allowed by fielders. 

• Base Runs -  Runs Saved Above Average based on batters faced and hits, walks, total bases and home runs allowed.

• FIP Runs - Runs Saved Above Average based on innings, bases on balls, hit batsmen and home runs allowed and strikeouts.

These measures are discussed in more detail in an earlier post.  After computing them, you can aggregate them using weights depending on which measures you trust the most. I chose to take a simple average.

The 2014 National League leaders are listed in Table 1 below.  Dodgers left hander Clayton Kershaw led the league in all the above categories - Pitching Runs (46), Adjusted Pitching Runs (42), Base Runs (42) and FIP Runs (46).  That gives him an aggregate of 44 runs prevented compared to an average pitcher.  Johnny Cueto of the Reds was second with 33 runs prevented.  

Table 1: NL Run Prevention Leaders, 2014

Pitcher	Team	IP	Pitching Runs	Adjusted Pitching Runs	Base Runs	FIP Runs	Average
Clayton Kershaw*	LAD	198.1	46	42	42	46	44
Johnny Cueto	CIN	243.2	39	36	36	20	33
Adam Wainwright	STL	227	37	31	35	27	32
Jake Arrieta	CHC	156.2	23	25	30	31	27
Cole Hamels*	PHI	204.2	31	33	18	21	26
Jordan Zimmermann	WSN	199.2	21	21	20	29	23
Tanner Roark	WSN	198.2	24	23	18	12	19
Zack Greinke	LAD	202.1	21	17	11	20	17
Julio Teheran	ATL	221	16	15	19	12	15
Alex Wood*	ATL	171.2	18	17	13	14	15
Madison Bumgarner*	SFG	217.1	15	8	16	17	14
Stephen Strasburg	WSN	215	9	9	11	25	14
Doug Fister	WSN	164	21	20	12	1	13
Henderson Alvarez	MIA	187	18	20	6	9	13
Lance Lynn	STL	203.2	18	13	7	13	13
Tyson Ross	SDP	195.2	12	6	17	12	12
Hyun-jin Ryu*	LAD	152	7	4	9	21	10
Gio Gonzalez*	WSN	158.2	4	4	11	17	9
Josh Collmenter	ARI	179.1	5	8	10	5	7
Edinson Volquez	PIT	192.2	10	7	9	-6	5
Francisco Liriano*	PIT	162.1	4	1	8	5	5

Data source: Baseball-Reference.com