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Monday, May 03, 2010
Dear Zack Greinke,
Thank you so much for saying “FIP” in 2009, as it gave me a chance to talk to my wife about baseball without boring her to tears. For that, you have my gratitude. (Steve Bartman: you too. My wife is totally on your side.)
The word-of-the-year for 2010 is WPA, which is “win probability added”. Among MLB starting pitchers, Roy Halladay leads with +1.65 wins added to his team, and you are holding up well with +0.91 wins added. Yes, even though MLB’s archaic system of crediting W/L to pitchers based on how the rest of your team contributes says you are worth 0 wins AND 3 losses, WPA is only interested in how you (and your fielders) contribute to winning. It ignores the team offense, it ignores the bullpen support.
I know, I know, you would think that a stat that tracks your performance relative to how much it helps or hurt its team would be a good thing, but most people don’t think that’s the case. We find it hard to counter an argument that starts, and ends, with “Wins, baby, wins!”. We’re trying though. We may live in the age of Obama, but we also live in the age of Palin.
Tom
(Note to readers: no political talk in this thread.)
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