From: rc@hal.COM (Rolland Crunk)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Dream Team
Date: 12 Aug 92 23:59:55 GMT
Organization: HaL Computer Systems, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: malibog.hal.com


I am *not* a Mets fan and never have been. Yes maybe my leaning towards
David Cone is based on his superior strikeout numbers. But if a batter
strikes out, there is no possibility of him to:

	1. Get a base hit
	2. Advance a base runner 
	3. Reach base on an error

How does a particular stadium have any effect on how many batters a
pitcher stikes out? A better pitching mound? Yeah right...

Cone is 29 years old. Nolan Ryan is 45; why is it inconceivable that he
is beginning to show what he is capable of?

And what collection of statistics are important for a pitcher?
I guess the bottom line is wins since everything else means nothing
to the team (I don't really believe this). Problem is, the pitcher 
is only one person and the rest of the team has to perform in order 
for him to win. ERA? Yeah this stat is a pretty good indicator of how 
well a pitcher is doing, however it can be a bit misleading and slight 
variations really don't mean too much. If you are playing in a fantasy 
league, then the method of calculation for pitching scores determines who
the best pitcher is. Problem is this is just fantasy and there are
many variations on how scores are calculated. For example, here are 
scores (save column deleted) from last week for the league I am in for a 
few of the top starting pitchers:

Name		W(+15)	L(+8)	IP(+1)	SO(+1)	ER(-1)	Total  | ERA(0)
---------------------------------------------------------------|------
Doug Drabek	9	8	173	122	50	316    | 2.60
Jack Morris	13	4	154	76	75	318    | 4.36 
Ken Hill	12	5	142	94	46	330    | 2.92
Roger Clemens	11	7	162	138	42	368    | 2.32
Greg Maddux	13	9	174	125	44	378    | 2.27
Kevin Appier	12	3	161	110	38	389    | 2.12
Jack McDowell	15	5	163	110	65	393    | 3.57
Kevin Brown	15	7	175	117	65	396    | 3.34
Juan Guzman	12	2	137	133	31	403    | 2.03 
John Smoltz	13	6	171	149	49	418    | 2.57
Tom Glavine	16	3	162	92	45	425    | 2.49
David Cone	13	4	170	194	51	476    | 2.69


If you go by:

	W:	Roger Clemens is #11,	David Cone is #4T
	L:	Roger Clemens is #9T,	David Cone is #4T
	IP:	Roger Clemens is #7T,	David Cone is #5
	SO:	Roger Clemens is #3	David Cone is #1
	Total:	Roger Clemens is #9,	David Cone is #1
	ERA:	Roger Clemens is #4,	David Cone is #8

Of course this means absolutely nothing in the real scheme of 
things and a couple of good weeks for a given pitcher and a couple 
of bad weeks for another can really turn things around. 

The point I am trying to make is that statistics can be used in any
way that one wants to in order to support their opinion. I place
a lot of weight on strikeouts (see reasons given at the beginning 
of this message), innings pitched (pitcher normally gets yanked
when he gets in trouble), and ERA.

Finally, my opinion that David Cone is (currently) the best pitcher in
either league with Roger Clemens second is just that. My opinion (yeah
I've got one too). You don't have to like it and I'm not gonna spend a 
lot of time trying to justify it or convince anyone else.


rc
// Rolland Crunk
// HaL Computer Systems 
// rc@hal.com
Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball