Comments on: Daily Prospect Report 7/26/07

By: Eli

Eli — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:27:50 +0000

I will be interviews Nick Derba for my site tonight…any questions?

By: azruavatar

azruavatar — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:01:19 +0000

One of my goals this offseason is to go over the best methods (imo) to statistically evaluate pitching and hitting. ERA is not on that list. I use ERA from time to time on the site because everyone is familiar with it but it’s not something I would ever use to base an evaluation of talent on.

If you want some summaries of pitching and defense, the best place to look is to google USSMariner and Evaluating pitching/defense. They’ve got some fantastic pieces (and the writers there are incredibly knowledgable).

By: SilentBob

SilentBob — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:13:26 +0000

Jeff - if you think that ERA is the most important stat, then I’m not sure that you get the gist of what AZ is saying.

What’s your second most important pitching stat, Wins/Losses?

I’m sick of reading the local paper where the “top pitchers” are categorized by win %. What a joke.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:02:12 +0000

AZ - I agree with you. My roomate and I were having an interesting discussion about RBIs, stats, etc. And we were wondering about pitchers vs. hitters. And in my mind, there is only one(or two) stats that count for pitchers, ERA (and total runs allowed). You either get guys out and don’t let them score, or you do.
On the other hand, there are so many different kinds of hitters, slap-hitters, patient hitters, power hitters, free swingers.
In both cases, numbers tell us so much more, but I agree with you that RBIs do not mean that much.
I don’t know why, I just thouught I would just go off on a tangent on your tangent.

By: azruavatar

azruavatar — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:33:30 +0000

I’m reading Jim Masilak’s recap of last night’s memphis game:

Stavinoha’s game-winning, two-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning off River Cats reliever Jeffrey Gray [...] might not have been possible without the skid-busting single he produced the previous inning.

Why are reporters allowed to write garbage like this? Is the common fan really so detached from the reality of the game that they are willing to accept 1 at bat as a “slump-buster”? Bad cliches aside, if Stavinoha goes 0-for-10 the next few games (or something closely approximating that) what do we make of that “slump-busting” at bat?

Perhaps it’s just me, but I have a hard time reading the newspaper and listening to radio commentary anymore. I’m never going to claim that one person is more of a fan than another (everyone enjoys the game in their own way) but it’s incredibly difficult for me to not scream at the radio in my car when someone begins looking at batting averages and RBIs to find the “good” players in the league.

In any event, the Stavinoha at-bat was one at-bat; don’t read into it. Jim Masilak calling it a slump-buster is lazy writing and requires crystal-ball foresight for it to come true.

(Tangent: The article also says that Narveson tweaked his right knee. Read that however you will.)