Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Victory

Sorry, all you non-VORPies out there, the nerds just won:
“I thought that could push him over the top, because his won-loss record was way better than mine,” Greinke said. “But I’m also a follower, since Brian Bannister’s on our team, of sabermetric stuff and going into details of stats about what you can control.”
And later on:
“That’s pretty much how I pitch, to try to keep my FIP as low as possible,” Greinke said.
Yeah, that's Zack Greinke, AL Cy Young award winner. And, yeah, that's FIP: Fielding Independent Pitching, a geek stat that estimates a pitchers ERA independent from his fielder's ability.

Players are starting to adopt this stuff. They're starting to learn from it and use it to make them better players. How long until mainstream sports analysts catch up?

(Hat tip: Rob Neyer).

4 comments:

Lisa said...

So, if I understand FIP correctly, it is what a pitcher's ERA would be if it didn't depend on the fielders doing their jobs right. If not, explain.

John Lynch said...

Yes, that is the general goal of FIP.

Lisa said...

One more less related comment. There has got to be a way to get an email to let me know that you commented on my comment. How do I get that to happen?

John Lynch said...

When you post, there should be a check box offering to email you when a follow up comment is made? Do you not have this option?