from Amazon
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Attribution v Actuality
A pitcher’s outcome line represents what his team did WHILE the pitcher was on the mound, and NOT (necessarily) BECAUSE he was on the mound.
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A pitcher’s W/L record is one such thing, as is his BABIP, his ERA, his HR, all of which are influenced to some degree or other on things that the pitcher has no control over.
The same can be said for a catcher’s ERA, or the number of outs recorded by a fielder. Or, really, a ton of things that we’ve so neatly compartmentalized directly to a single player.
These are team statistics, to some extent or other. You have to think about it in that context.
Don’t be so foolish as to think that since you care only about what did happen, that you actually know which single person it did happen to, as if the other 8 players on the field did not exist.