ERA and OPS of top 11 Players for 19 MLB Contenders: Nats, Astros, Dodgers, Diamondbacks Dominate

The 11 most important positions going into a Major League baseball playoff series are the eight starting position players and the first three starting pitchers. While a deep bench and relief pitching can determine series if these are fairly evenly matched, if the top three starting pitchers throw well they can throw most of the innings in a playoff series facing mainly the eight best starters the opposing team can put on the field while covering all nine positions (obviously AL games have a DH as well, but they have less impact since they cannot take runs away on defense).

The following table compares the two best traditional stats, the Earned Run Average (ERA) for the three pitchers and On Base Percentage Plus Slugging Average for the eight batters (OPS). These are not perfect stats - on-base percentage is almost twice as important as slugging average and both are impacted by ballparks for example - but they represent a great bridge between traditional stats and modern analytics and the purpose of this breakdown is to focus on the players who will play most of the innings in a playoff series.

The league averages as of August 4 were a 4.34 ERA and a .751 OPS. However, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, Washington Nationals and Arizona Diamondbacks are the top four teams in both stats when comparing these 11 players:

Team	8 Pos OPS	Bat	ERA	3 SP	Overall
Nationals	0.878	2	2.71	1	1
Astros	0.885	1	2.90	3	2
Dodgers	0.854	4	2.79	2	3
Diamondbacks	0.871	3	3.02	4	4
Red Sox	0.792	10	3.33	5	5
Brewers	0.800	9	3.56	6	6
Indians	0.837	6	3.97	12	7
Yankees	0.842	5	4.02	13	8
Rays	0.762	15	3.57	7	9
Mariners	0.768	13	3.79	10	10
Cubs	0.790	12	3.88	11	11
Rockies	0.819	7	4.40	17	12
Royals	0.757	16	3.76	9	13
Twins	0.738	18	3.72	8	14
Rangers	0.792	11	4.17	15	15
Orioles	0.816	8	5.07	19	16
Tigers	0.763	14	4.41	18	17
Blue Jays	0.737	19	4.10	14	18
Angels	0.744	17	4.22	16	19

The following is the breakdown of all 11 players for each of the 19 teams with the ERA and OPS of each player.

Team	Pos	Name	OPS/ERA
MLB	Pitcher	Average ERA	4.34
MLB	Batter	Average OPS	0.751
Angels	SP1	Alex Meyer	3.74
Angels	SP2	JC Ramirez	4.03
Angels	SP3	Ricky Nolasco	4.90
Angels	cf	Mike Trout	1.159
Angels	ss	Andrelton Simmons	0.816
Angels	3b	Yunel Escobar	0.727
Angels	C	Martin Maldonado	0.701
Angels	rf	Kole Calhoun	0.682
Angels	1B	Luis Valbuena	0.642
Angels	2b	Cliff Pennington	0.632
Angels	lf	Ben Revere	0.591
Astros	SP1	Dallas Keuchel	2.15
Astros	SP2	Brad Peacock	2.62
Astros	SP3	Lance McCullers	3.92
Astros	2b	Jose Altuve	1.000
Astros	cf	George Springer	0.974
Astros	ss	Carlos Correa	0.966
Astros	lf	Marwin Gonzalez	0.958
Astros	rf	Josh Reddick	0.838
Astros	3b	Alex Bregman	0.816
Astros	1B	Yulieski Gurriel	0.783
Astros	C	Brian McCann	0.748
Blue Jays	SP1	Marcus Stroman	3.19
Blue Jays	SP2	J.A. Happ	3.92
Blue Jays	SP3	Marco Estrada	5.19
Blue Jays	1B	Justin Smoak	0.984
Blue Jays	3b	Josh Donaldson	0.847
Blue Jays	lf	Pearce	0.795
Blue Jays	C	Russell Martin	0.745
Blue Jays	rf	Bautista	0.704
Blue Jays	cf	Kevin Pillar	0.698
Blue Jays	ss	Troy Tulowitzki	0.678
Blue Jays	2b	Refsnyder	0.448
Brewers	SP1	Chase Anderson	2.89
Brewers	SP2	Jimmy Nelson	3.37
Brewers	SP3	Zach Davies	4.42
Brewers	3b	Travis Shaw	0.923
Brewers	1B	Eric Thames	0.902
Brewers	lf	Ryan Braun	0.876
Brewers	rf	Domingo Santana	0.856
Brewers	2b	Eric Sogard	0.81
Brewers	C	Manny Pina	0.801
Brewers	ss	Orlando Arcia	0.72
Brewers	cf	Lewis Brinson	0.513
Cubs	SP1	Kyle Hendricks	3.80
Cubs	SP2	Jake Arrieta	3.88
Cubs	SP3	Jon Lester	3.96
Cubs	1B	Anthony Rizzo	0.915
Cubs	3b	Kris Bryant	0.899
Cubs	C	Willson Contreras	0.855
Cubs	2b	Javier Baez	0.788
Cubs	lf	Kyle Schwarber	0.724
Cubs	ss	Addison Russell	0.722
Cubs	cf	Albert Almora Jr.	0.717
Cubs	rf	Jason Heyward	0.703
Diamondbacks	SP1	Zack Godley	2.86
Diamondbacks	SP2	Zack Greinke	3.10
Diamondbacks	SP3	Robbie Ray	3.11
Diamondbacks	1B	Paul Goldschmidt	1.031
Diamondbacks	rf	J.D. Martinez	1.006
Diamondbacks	3b	Jake Lamb	0.911
Diamondbacks	cf	A.J. Pollock	0.832
Diamondbacks	ss	Ketel Marte	0.814
Diamondbacks	rf	David Peralta	0.81
Diamondbacks	C	Chris Iannetta	0.794
Diamondbacks	2b	Brandon Drury	0.77
Dodgers	SP1	Clayton Kershaw	2.04
Dodgers	SP2	Alex Wood	2.33
Dodgers	SP3	Yu Darvish	4.01
Dodgers	3b	Justin Turner	0.979
Dodgers	1B	Cody Bellinger	0.954
Dodgers	lf	Chris Taylor	0.913
Dodgers	ss	Corey Seager	0.913
Dodgers	cf	Joc Pederson	0.806
Dodgers	rf	Yasiel Puig	0.801
Dodgers	C	Yasmani Grandal	0.792
Dodgers	2b	Logan Forsythe	0.674
Indians	SP1	Corey Kluber	2.77
Indians	SP2	Carlos Carrasco	3.89
Indians	SP3	Trevor Bauer	5.25
Indians	rf	Lonnie Chisenhall	0.954
Indians	2b	Jose Ramirez	0.938
Indians	3b	Jose Ramirez	0.938
Indians	ss	Francisco Lindor	0.805
Indians	lf	Michael Brantley	0.795
Indians	cf	Bradley Zimmer	0.794
Indians	1B	Carlos Santana	0.788
Indians	C	Yan Gomes	0.68
Mariners	SP1	James Paxton	2.68
Mariners	SP2	Felix Hernandez	4.28
Mariners	SP3	Ariel Miranda	4.41
Mariners	2b	Robinson Cano	0.807
Mariners	lf	Ben Gamel	0.799
Mariners	ss	Jean Segura	0.793
Mariners	rf	Mitch Haniger	0.783
Mariners	3b	Kyle Seager	0.776
Mariners	C	Mike Zunino	0.767
Mariners	1B	Danny Valencia	0.74
Mariners	cf	Jarrod Dyson	0.677
Nationals	SP1	Max Scherzer	2.21
Nationals	SP2	Gio Gonzalez	2.66
Nationals	SP3	Stephen Strasburg	3.25
Nationals	rf	Bryce Harper	1.041
Nationals	3b	Anthony Rendon	0.997
Nationals	2b	Daniel Murphy	0.945
Nationals	1B	Ryan Zimmerman	0.928
Nationals	lf	Adam Lind	0.9
Nationals	cf	Brian Goodwin	0.807
Nationals	ss	Trea Turner	0.746
Nationals	C	Matt Wieters	0.66
Orioles	SP1	Dylan Bundy	4.24
Orioles	SP2	Kevin Gausman	5.37
Orioles	SP3	Wade Miley	5.60
Orioles	2b	Jonathan Schoop	0.91
Orioles	ss	Johnathan Schoop	0.902
Orioles	lf	Trey Mancini	0.865
Orioles	rf	Seth Smith	0.817
Orioles	1B	Chris Davis	0.767
Orioles	cf	Adam Jones	0.763
Orioles	3b	Manny Machado	0.751
Orioles	C	Welington Castillo	0.751
Rangers	SP1	Andrew Cashner	3.36
Rangers	SP2	Cole Hamels	4.01
Rangers	SP3	Martin Perez	5.13
Rangers	3b	Adrian Beltre	0.875
Rangers	1B	Joey Gallo	0.869
Rangers	ss	Elvis Andrus	0.801
Rangers	cf	Carlos Gomez	0.796
Rangers	C	Robinson Chirinos	0.781
Rangers	rf	Shin-Soo Choo	0.779
Rangers	lf	Nomar Mazara	0.747
Rangers	2b	Rougned Odor	0.69
Rays	SP1	Jacob Faria	2.93
Rays	SP2	Chris Archer	3.89
Rays	SP3	Alex Cobb	3.89
Rays	1B	Logan Morrison	0.904
Rays	rf	Steven Souza Jr.	0.893
Rays	lf	Corey Dickerson	0.881
Rays	3b	Evan Longoria	0.789
Rays	cf	Mallex Smith	0.742
Rays	C	Jesus Sucre	0.656
Rays	2b	Brad Miller	0.649
Rays	ss	Adeiny Hechavarria	0.584
Red Sox	SP1	Chris Sale	2.70
Red Sox	SP2	Drew Pomeranz	3.46
Red Sox	SP3	David Price	3.82
Red Sox	3b	Rafael Devers	1
Red Sox	rf	Mookie Betts	0.815
Red Sox	2b	Dustin Pedroia	0.792
Red Sox	lf	Andrew Benintendi	0.766
Red Sox	cf	Jackie Bradley Jr.	0.765
Red Sox	1B	Mitch Moreland	0.751
Red Sox	ss	Xander Bogaerts	0.741
Red Sox	C	Christian Vazquez	0.709
Rockies	SP1	Kyle Freeland	3.71
Rockies	SP2	German Marquez	4.11
Rockies	SP3	Jeff Hoffman	5.38
Rockies	cf	Charlie Blackmon	0.99
Rockies	3b	Nolan Arenado	0.961
Rockies	lf	Gerardo Parra	0.903
Rockies	1B	Mark Reynolds	0.892
Rockies	2b	DJ LeMahieu	0.796
Rockies	ss	Trevor Story	0.725
Rockies	C	Jonathan Lucroy	0.645
Rockies	rf	Carlos Gonzalez	0.641
Royals	SP1	Jason Vargas	3.10
Royals	SP2	Danny Duffy	3.42
Royals	SP3	Jason Hammel	4.75
Royals	1B	Eric Hosmer	0.869
Royals	3b	Mike Moustakas	0.852
Royals	C	Salvador Perez	0.824
Royals	2b	Whit Merrifield	0.802
Royals	rf	Melky Cabrera	0.773
Royals	cf	Lorenzo Cain	0.771
Royals	lf	Alex Gordon	0.595
Royals	ss	Alcides Escobar	0.567
Tigers	SP1	Michael Fulmer	3.59
Tigers	SP2	Justin Verlander	4.29
Tigers	SP3	Jordan Zimmermann	5.35
Tigers	lf	Justin Upton	0.885
Tigers	cf	Mikie Mahtook	0.802
Tigers	C	James McCann	0.773
Tigers	rf	Jim Adduci	0.765
Tigers	1B	Miguel Cabrera	0.758
Tigers	3b	Nick Castellanos	0.742
Tigers	2b	Ian Kinsler	0.719
Tigers	ss	Jose Iglesias	0.658
Twins	SP1	Ervin Santana	3.28
Twins	SP2	Jose Berrios	3.57
Twins	SP3	Adalberto Mejia	4.30
Twins	3b	Miguel Sano	0.871
Twins	lf	Eddie Rosario	0.787
Twins	2b	Brian Dozier	0.753
Twins	1B	Joe Mauer	0.751
Twins	ss	Ehire Adrianza	0.734
Twins	rf	Max Kepler	0.726
Twins	C	Jason Castro	0.689
Twins	cf	Zach Granite	0.596
Yankees	SP1	Luis Severino	2.98
Yankees	SP2	Jordan Montgomery	4.15
Yankees	SP3	Masahiro Tanaka	4.93
Yankees	rf	Aaron Judge	1.051
Yankees	cf	Aaron Hicks	0.913
Yankees	C	Gary Sanchez	0.845
Yankees	ss	Didi Gregorius	0.823
Yankees	2b	Starlin Castro	0.816
Yankees	lf	Brett Gardner	0.81
Yankees	1b	Chase Headley	0.741
Yankees	3b	Todd Frazier	0.734