Who Will Lead the Majors in ERA in 2007?

Yesterday I started a series of articles on who is going to lead the Majors in certain categories this season. First I tackled stolen bases but now we're going to move to the pitcher side of things and look at who will lead Major League Baseball in ERA.

Some people might judge a pitcher's worth by their amount of wins but wins can sometimes come just from pitching for a team that can score a lot of runs, look no further than Steve Trachsel last year who was one win away from leading the National League in wins. ERA is a better way of judging a pitcher's worth because it tells just how many runs a pitcher is surrendering.

One guy to look out for this year is Jason Jennings. Jennings hasn't gotten much attention but in 2002 he won the Rookie of the Year and went 16 - 8, he had two more ten win seasons and last season he had a career best 3.78 ERA. All that while playing in Coors field, making the shift to Houston will help Jennings get even better.

A couple of Yankees will probably play into the equation. After a poor season Andy Pettitte is looking to bounce back, Wang is pitching well enough to be the Yankees ace and Mike Mussina is still going strong too.

The Red Sox are hoping Daisuke Matsuzaka will be in the ERA race, the Giants are hoping their free agent signing of Barry Zito will may dividends and the Oakland A's are hoping that Rich Harden will stay healthy enough to finally live up to his Cy Young potential. Here are the five I expect to finish at the top though.

5. Roy Halladay - After a couple of injury plagued seasons Roy Halladay came back with a 16 - 5 season and a 3.19 ERA. I think this will be the year that the Blue Jays finally contend for a playoff spot and I love the idea of Halladay possible stepping it up even more in a playoff race.

4. Brandon Webb - Brandon Webb finally started to get some attention last season but his attention was still kind low considering he won the Cy Young and led the National League in Wins and finishes third in ERA. This year Webb will get even more attention as the ring leader of a very talented Diamondbacks team that should be one of the most improved teams this season.

3. Chris Carpenter - I've said a couple of times now I don't like the direction the Cardinals are going. They are definitely headed down the standings but if there are two things you can count on it is Albert Pujols and Chris Carpenter. Carpenter has been in the top 3 in Cy Young voting the past two years. Carpenter's wins might suffer if the Cardinals struggle but his ERA should still be great.

2. Roy Oswalt - When is Oswalt going to get his Cy Young already? Seriously in an age where very few pitchers still pitch under a 3.00 ERA Oswalt has done it four times in six years and one other year his ERA was 3.01. So far 3.49 stands as Oswalt's bad season. There is no reason why Oswalt won't lead the National League in ERA and there is no reason not to give him the Cy Young this year.

1. Johan Santana - There are many great pitchers in Major League Baseball but this was still possibly the easiest category. What can I say about Johan Santana that hasn't already been said? Santana should have won the past three Cy Youngs and has a 2.75 ERA and 748 strikeouts over the past three years.