Depth or Disaster? You be the judge

The Dodgers have acquired Roberto Hernandez and Kevin Correia over the last five days to help with their starting pitching depth problems. When I think of the worst starting pitcher of the last four years Kevin Correia comes to mind so I thought I’d check to see if this had any validity.

Going quick and dirty with Baseball-Reference I looked for any starter with at least eighty starts over the last four years with an ERA+ below 100.  I got 38 hits so I thought I’d narrow it to below 90 for a more manageable fifteen seasons.

As I suspect Kevin was on the list, but to my surprise so was Roberto Hernandez.  In fact you could make an argument that Roberto Hernandez not Correia has been the worst starting pitcher who keeps getting the ball game after game for the last four years.

Player              ERA+  GS From   To  W  L W-L%    IP   H  ER  BB  SO  ERA  FIP OPS+
Ubaldo Jimenez        90 114 2011 2014 36 47 .434 653.1 638 324 316 610 4.46 4.15  109
John Lackey           89  80 2011 2014 34 33 .507 498.2 539 254 130 392 4.58 4.12  108
Francisco Liriano     89  98 2011 2014 34 38 .472 560.1 492 269 275 556 4.32 3.86   95
Joe Saunders          89 101 2011 2014 32 47 .405 609.1 699 300 187 349 4.43 4.65  124
Phil Hughes           89  98 2011 2014 36 40 .474 555.1 615 285 129 460 4.62 4.06  110
Edwin Jackson         89 117 2011 2014 36 50 .419 696.1 744 348 235 568 4.50 3.81  112
Erik Bedard           88  89 2011 2014 20 41 .328 481.2 480 239 208 445 4.47 4.10  109
John Danks            88  81 2011 2014 24 37 .393 503.0 542 266 151 353 4.76 4.68  113
Kevin Correia         86 108 2011 2014 38 48 .442 639.2 726 319 162 328 4.49 4.51  117
Ricky Nolasco         86 115 2011 2014 40 43 .482 700.0 793 352 165 510 4.53 3.73  112
Tim Lincecum          85 121 2011 2014 42 50 .457 735.0 666 332 303 727 4.07 3.71  107
Jake Westbrook        85  80 2011 2013 32 28 .533 474.2 531 232 175 254 4.40 4.18  115
J.A. Happ             84  87 2011 2014 29 39 .426 497.0 500 264 223 444 4.78 4.30  114
Roberto Hernandez     80  80 2011 2014 19 39 .328 481.0 497 258 156 304 4.83 4.64  115
Edinson Volquez       76 106 2011 2014 34 37 .479 595.1 580 316 296 510 4.78 4.41  118

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/10/2014.