Royals Starters WPA Records

In celebration of me re-subscribing to the magical Baseball Reference play index, below are a couple of tables related to Royals starters and win probability added. WPA "records" is sort of a pet junk stat of mine. I keep track of 2012 Royals starters in the right sidebar, with the first number being a start with a positive WPA and the second number starts without a positive WPA. As you can see, Felipe Paulino (4-3) is the only Royals pitcher this year with a winning WPA record. It is not a terribly meaningful measure, but I enjoy seeing numbers that look like the silly, traditional record but with a little more sabermetric oomph behind them. I also like that there aren't no decisions. Does Greinke's 16-8 W-L in 2009 actually represent what kind of season he had? Of course not. His WPA record of 25-8 doesn't completely either, but it certainly tells more of the story. WPA also rewards pitchers who have a good game but don't get run support. Greinke had nine starts in 2009 in which he gave up exactly one run. According to W-L, he was a 5-2 pitcher in those games. According to WPA, 9-0.

Here are the seasons with the most starts with a positive WPA in Royals history:

Rk	Player	Year
1	Bret Saberhagen	1989	26
2	Kevin Appier	1993	26
3	Zack Greinke	2009	25
4	Dennis Leonard	1977	24
5	Larry Gura	1980	24
6	Steve Busby	1975	24
7	Kevin Appier	1992	24
8	Dennis Leonard	1978	23
9	David Cone	1993	23
10	Mark Gubicza	1988	22
11	Dick Drago	1971	22
12	Steve Busby	1974	22

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

Generated 7/30/2012.

And here is the all-time Royals positive WPA starts leaderboard:

Rk	Player
1	Paul Splittorff	200
2	Kevin Appier	178
3	Mark Gubicza	174
4	Dennis Leonard	165
5	Bret Saberhagen	129
6	Larry Gura	115
7	Charlie Leibrandt	102
8	Zack Greinke	97
9	Steve Busby	85
10	Dick Drago	79

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

Generated 7/30/2012.

And on the flip side, here are the seasons with the most non-positive WPA starts:

Rk	Player	Year
1	Jose Lima	2005	24
2	Paul Splittorff	1974	21
3	Paul Splittorff	1977	21
4	Kyle Davies	2010	21
5	Darrell May	2004	20
6	Larry Gura	1979	20
7	Dick Drago	1973	20
8	Buddy Black	1985	20
9	Brian Bannister	2008	20
10	Jeff Suppan	2002	19
11	Mark Redman	2006	19
12	Larry Gura	1983	19
13	Larry Gura	1982	19
14	Zack Greinke	2005	19
15	Rich Gale	1979	19
16	Jeff Francis	2011	19
17	Dick Drago	1970	19
18	Floyd Bannister	1988	19

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/30/2012.

And the all-time most non-positive WPA starts:

Rk	Player
1	Paul Splittorff	193
2	Mark Gubicza	153
3	Dennis Leonard	137
4	Larry Gura	104
5	Bret Saberhagen	97
6	Kevin Appier	97
7	Charlie Leibrandt	85
8	Dick Drago	81
9	Zack Greinke	72
10	Luke Hochevar	69

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 7/30/2012.