Felix Hernandez and the ‘mega quality start’
Jun 18, 2014, 1:23 PM | Updated: Jul 15, 2014, 4:02 pm
BY
710 ESPN Seattle
Felix Hernandez is the Everlasting Gobstopper of baseball stats. Those he produces are both delicious and endless.
The focus today will be the “mega quality start”. MQS is a concept put forth by Curtis Wilson from Root Sports and you can find more details on the stat from Bryan Cole here. An MQS is an outing of at least eight innings with one earned run or fewer. It probably will not shock you to learn that Hernandez boasts the most of them since 2010.
Felix Hernandez, 42
Cliff Lee, 33
Clayton Kershaw, 29
Adam Wainwright, 23
James Shields, 22
Cole Hamels, 22
Jered Weaver, 20
Justin Verlander, 20
Roy Halladay, 20
David Price, 18
The fact that Felix is ahead of the pack by a full nine is impressive. The fact that he has produced more of them than Justin Verlander and Davis Price combined borders on ridiculous. However, there is one aspect of this stat that is supremely superb over all others: Hernandez has hurled more mega quality starts since 2010 than 14 entire MLB teams.
Felix Hernandez, 42
Boston, 41
Chicago (NL), 39
Milwaukee, 37
Minnesota, 35
Atlanta, 35
Baltimore 35
Toronto, 32
Cleveland, 31
Washington, 31
Kansas City, 30
San Diego, 27
Houston, 26
Pittsburgh, 22
Colorado, 19
Hernandez has taken the ball 146 times since 2010 and turned in an MQS nearly 30 percent of the time. He has doubled-up on the Rockies despite a grand total of 720 starts from that club’s staff during this timeframe.
