PECOTA says that he’s the 20th most valuable pitcher in baseball long-term, more valuable than Roy Oswalt, Dontrelle Willis, or Justin Verlander. He’s one of just eleven pitchers to post a VORP of 40 or higher in each of the last two seasons. He pitches in a major media market, is in the prime of his career, and has no red flags in his injury or health performance record. And yet, he’s never received a vote for the Cy Young award, never made an All-Star team, and has barely one-fifth the Google hits of Barry Zito.
Who is he? Scroll your mouse over the chart below if you want to know.
The Elite Eleven: Pitchers with a VORP of 40 or Higher in both 2005 and 2006, sorted by Google Hits
Pitcher VORP '05 VORP '06 Google
Clemens, Roger 80.2 42.1 1,090,000
Zito, Barry 41.1 49.9 768,000
Santana, Johan 79.6 73.0 479,000
Carpenter, Chris 67.8 67.8 472,000
Smoltz, John 60.1 61.9 368,000
Zambrano, Carlos 51.2 53.8 327,000
Willis, Dontrelle 65.2 40.5 315,000
Oswalt, Roy 65.1 72.4 301,000
Webb, Brandon 46.2 68.9 225,000
Myers, Brett 41.6 40.7 209,000
Lackey, John 49.1 47.1 165,000
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