A quality start is a pitching statistic used to describe an outstanding performance by a team’s starting pitcher that helps the team win a baseball game. Many fans think that this term has been around since the late 1990s, when Major League Baseball started keeping track of this statistic. In fact, the name ‘quality start’ is credited to former Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver, who used it in his book Earl Weaver On Baseball, published in 1976.

What is a Quality Start in Baseball?

 In a situation where a pitcher has a low WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched), the WHIP becomes misleading and only tells part of the story. A pitcher who walks two or three batters is the same as a pitcher in the same situation who walks five or six, although the former is perceived to be a much better pitcher. However, a pitcher who walks two batters or three at the same time as a pitcher who walks five or six is being punished for his offense. Therefore, not all walks of two or three are created equally.

Who Coined the Phrase?

The quality start came from John Lowe, a sportswriter for the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1985. As the years have gone by, organizations and players expand that phrase to explain different scenarios. For example, Nolan Ryan used the term “High-Quality Start” to represent a pitcher who pitches seven innings and gives up less than three runs. Another phrase you may hear from the radio and TV announcers is a tough-loss, which means a pitcher lost the game even though they got the quality start.

How is a Quality Start Different from a Complete Game?

A complete game is when a pitcher goes at least six innings and give up less than four runs. If a pitcher reaches this threshold, they receive a quality start, but can also go nine innings and give up less than four runs. If that happens, they receive a quality start, but also receive a complete game.

Who are the All-Time Quality Start Leaders

The quality start statistic allows us to see when a pitcher was effective during a game. Instead of pitching the game and not being considered for a win, the quality start statistic is a simple way to evaluate a pitcher during the season, and that pitcher will most likely go into the playoffs with a win.

A Change in Pitching in Recent Years

Teams are using a lot of statistics in their decision-making and use pitchers to the end of games. It is harder to gauge when a starter is done pitching than it used to be and there has not been a lot of research done in the area of how to determine when a pitcher is done.
A pitcher needs to get through his or her pitches to the first out. The first out will often be an out at first base or a strikeout, so many managers feel they are done with the pitcher at that point.

Baseball player statistics and game play has been going on for over a century. With that being said, people still tend to be skeptical about how baseball is played, when it’s played, and how this is an important part of baseball history. This is one of the reasons why many people tend to be skeptical about how the game is played and who plays the game. The game of baseball has been played for over a century and some people still tend to question the reason why the game is played. The game of baseball has been played for a very long time.

The average major league seasons have been dropping in innings pitched every year, and the trend will continue.

While the league average is declining, the average innings pitched in the second half is going down by 2.2 each year, and the average of the last five years is down 1.5 innings pitched per game. This shows that starters are getting pulled before their time, and it looks like we will be seeing fewer quality starts this season.

Is the Quality Start Stat Over-Rated Now?

Stats are great tools for a team to measure how effective a pitcher is on a particular day, but there are other things that factor in as well. A pitcher can throw a low strikeout rate and still get the win on the mound. He can have a very low WHIP while allowing an ungodly number of baserunners. You’ll find more on that here.

Take your typical pitcher: They throw the first pitch and immediately make a decision about how they want to pitch the rest of the game. Many teams, like the Rays, are using the “opener” strategy. It puts pressure on the opposing pitcher, since you know they’ll start the game with no outs and a pitcher with a good track record should likely do at least well.

Conclusion on the Quality Start Metric

A quality start is one of several metrics that teams can use to find hidden talent in the draft. For instance, there are great pitchers on bad teams who don’t earn enough wins. If an owner only looks at a Wins to Loss ratio, they may overlook that pitcher during free agency. However, there might be a team who use statistics to find hidden talent. Maybe a team look at quality start as the most important metric, so they will favor that during the offseason.