Everyone talks about their starting pitcher putting up a Quality Start which means they want their starter to go at least 6 innings and give up 3 earned runs or less. The best team in baseball in 2016 the World Champions Chicago Cubs won 103 games and had 100 QS’s of which the team won 74 of those games or 74%. On the other end of the National League spectrum we had the Los Angeles Dodgers who won the NL west with a 91-71 record had the NL fewest QS’s with 60 and they won 46 of those games for a 76.7%. The Dodgers had one more QS than the worst team in baseball, the Minnesota Twins who won 59 games and had 59 QS’s of which the Twins won 35 of those games for a 59.3%. Hard to believe but the Dodgers had one more QS than Minnesota and yet they almost made it to the World Series and won 32 more games than did the Twins. WOW!
I see Quality Starts as one of those baseball numbers that does not mean a lot, it is one of the contributing factors to a win but a QS in itself doesn’t ensure an addition to the “W” column. Looking over the entire history of the Minnesota Twins since 1961 I found that they have had 4,401 QS’s and the team has won 3,024 of those games for a 68.71%. That appears to mean that when your pitcher puts up a QS you will win about 2/3 of your games and that is not bad at all, if your team has .666 winning percentage you are in fat city because your baseball team has won about 108 games. But we all know that the Twins have lost more games than they have won since they moved to the Land of Sky Blue Waters in 1961.
The 2016 Minnesota Twins had the fewest Quality Starts in their history with 59 in the years that they have played the full schedule of games. The Twins have had three seasons when they have had 100 or more Quality Starts, in 1968 they had 100 QS’s and yet they finished 79-83, in 1967 they had 105 QS’s and finished 91-71, and in 1972 they only played 154 games finishing with a 77-77 mark but had 114 QS’s.
2016 American League Quality Start totals
2016 National League Quality Start totals
Bottom line? Kind of shows you that QS=BS.