Re: Compromised How? (926 Views)
Posted by:
Bob Barry (IP Logged)
Date: August 23, 2002 07:20PM
On the pitching stats I'd agree with Alydar. Stats for relief pitchers - specifically closers - can be awfully misleading. Perhaps the most important quality in a closer is resiliancy. How many days in a row can you pitch before you need a day off? However dominant a flamethrower may be, if he can only pitch 3 or 4 times a week, is he as valuable as a rubber-armed sinker-slider type (think Sparky Lyle) who can pitch almost every day?
For starting pitchers, no stat is more important than ERA. Any other stat can be misleading, but over the course of a season, ERA is as meaningful as statistics come.
For hitters, on-base average and slugging percentage combined is good, but isn't that mixing qualities that are rarely found in the same package? Yes, that stat will tell you how great The Kid and George Brett and their ilk were. But most players will fall into either the table-setter category (where OB% is everything) or the power hitter category (where slugging pct rules). Only the rarest birds will excel at both. I'd rather look at the two components individually, according to the type of player being evaluated.