Unlike Sky, my questions are a little less open ended.

1. Which of the following National League West starters ranked 8th in the majors in starters tRA?

A) Randy Johnson

B) Chris Young

C) Hiroka Kuroda

D) Ubaldo Jimenez

2. Of the random list of starters, who had the lowest tRA?

A) Scott Kazmir

B) Felix Hernandez

C) Andrew Miller

D) Andy Pettitte

E) Brett Myers

F) Cha Seung Baek

G) Joe Saunders

3.  Which of the following had a tRA at least a run better than the rest?

A) Jorge De La Rosa

B) Barry Zito

C) John Lackey

D) Jarrod Washburn

E) Jon Garland

4. Which pitcher finished just one-hundredth of a run behind Justin Duchscherer?

A) Roy Oswalt

B) Andrew Sonnanstine

C) Jake Peavy

D) Paul Maholm

5. Which of the following staff leaders had a tRA+ sub 95?

A) Washington

B) San Diego

C) Seattle

D) Pittsburgh

1. Even as a 45 year old with a 90-MPH fastball Johnson was extremely good. A lot of times Johnson is overlooked within his own rotation behind Dan Haren and Brandon Webb. A free agent to be, I'm curious if some team gives him a multiple year contract. Best Johnson story I've heard: while making a rehab start in Tuscon an umpire squeezed Johnson on a pitch. Following the inning Johnson remarked that the call was wrong and he had "20 years of major league experience to prove it," naturally the umpire did not take kindly to this and told Johnson it was a ball, to which the Big Unit kindly told him to fudge off.

2. Hopefully the additional choices didn't give it away, but surprisingly Baek was the best. Traded to the Padres for Jared Wells Baek was an excellent find for the Padres and somehow outperformed former top prospect Kazmir and Hernandez as well as the Phillies second starter. The more I write about Baek the more I see him making the Padres rotation for the next few years.

3. De La Rosa is correct and really flew under the radar for the Rocks.  Perhaps more interestingly is Jon Garland's placement. You wanna know how I know you're a silly GM? If you consider giving Garland a contract, that's how.

4. The answer is of course Sonnanstine. Both are similar pitchers with similar processes and at least similar tRAs. Encouraging for Tampa; your fourth starter is as good as some other team's ace.

5. Washington has some decent pitchers coming through their system and boy howdy do they need them. It's not that they can't have a decent staff within a few seasons, it's simply they have too many subpar starters taking the majority of the starts. How nice would Aaron Crow and Steven Strasburg anchoring this rotation have looked in three years?

Reference

As always the wonderful StatCorner