Comments on: Matt Cain

By: Stat of the Day » News & notes

Stat of the Day » News & notes — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:22:26 +0000

[...] Matt Cain. It’s too painful to even go into details of last night’s game, but let’s just say he was robbed again. [...]

By: Samurai Sam

Samurai Sam — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:25:39 +0000

Cain just had another good outing, only to see the bullpen cough it up in the ninth as they allowed 4 runs in the ninth. Ouch. Big win for the Padres.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:27:15 +0000

If history tells us anything, about baseball statistics and otherwise, it's that you can't force them onto people. Interest in and use of such information has to grow organically. Look--15 years ago, almost nobody cared about OBP and almost nobody had heard of OPS (speaking of the general baseball fan population, certainly not sabermatricians.) Now, OBP is widely used, even during telecasts of most baseball games. When folks like Jayson Stark start mentioning ERA+ in their columns, it will begin to catch on.

Of course, ERA+ is sort of unusual. For any year, it carries less meaning, since all pitchers are subject to the same league-average ERA for that given year. (The park correction still carries significant value.) But the real value of ERA+ is being able to compare pitchers, to some reasonable degree, across 100+ years via the correction.

By: kingturtle

kingturtle — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:27:01 +0000

The most impressive guy on this list is Nolan Ryan, who was 40 years old and had a ERA+ of 142! He led the NL in ERA! He led to NL in Ks, and K:BB ratio. He was also 3rd in WHIP. He placed 5th in the Cy Young voting!

By: vonhayes

vonhayes — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:16:55 +0000

No, I don't mean users here - I assume we can all agree that most stats are useful (maybe not RBI's though). I just mean people in general. If I mention ERA+ with certain friends, I'm mocked and then ignored.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:06:06 +0000

Well, anybody is free to read the stat glossary posted on the main website.

By: vonhayes

vonhayes — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:51:05 +0000

How can we help people understand that those adjusted stats are not "made up" and serve a great purpose?

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:39:40 +0000

Oh...not easily I don't think. ERA+ is calculated for each player but no standardized WHIP is provided.

Keep in mind, by the way, that ERA+ also takes account of the player's home ballpark. To me, that makes it an extremely valuable stat, even more valuable than just a standardized ERA.

By: kingturtle

kingturtle — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 15:06:32 +0000

ERA+ is a individual's ERA as compared to his league's overall ERA that season. Can we do the same for WHIP? WHIP+ would be an individual's WHIP compared to his league's overall WHIP that season.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 13:45:04 +0000

I'm not sure exactly what you want, but here are pitchers with a WHIP of 1.28 or less, minimum 20 decisions, ranked by lowest W/L%. Cain comes in tied for 36th, although the only pitchers ahead of him after 1975 are #32 Andy Benes in 1994, #26 Steve Rogers in 1976, #21 Jerry Koosman in 1977, and #20 Jose Bautisa in 1988. Here is the list for pitchers with a W/L% under .350, minimum 20 decisions, ranked by lowest WHIP. Cain is 81st on the list.