320 innings in a season

[Matthew C.]

What throws a lot of people off is the fact that average or above average pitchers get a disproportionate bulk of innings pitched. There are tons of below average or replacement pitchers who aren't good enough to get accumulate innings or shift the mean ERA, etc. that much. So even though an Edwin Jackson may have an average ERA+ and IP numbers of a #3 or 4 starter, he is certainly better than well more than half of pitchers who pitched in the MLB during the season. Mean vs. median. So fwiw, WAR may say that Jackson is "average", but there are still a lot more MLB pitchers behind him than in front of him.

Ex. Chris Capuano had a 1.8 WAR - which is "average". But he was also 39/374 of all NL pitchers in WAR.

[filihok]

Ex. Chris Capuano had a 1.8 WAR - which is "average". But he was also 39/374 of all NL pitchers in WAR.

Where does he rank among starters? Of course most relievers won't produce more than 2 WAR


If he ranked 39th among starters,

15 teams in the NL
15 #1 starters
15 #2 starters = 30 pitchers
9 #3 starters = 39 pitchers

That puts Capuano in the middle of the middle group. Average.

[bluesky5]

The funny part is pitching injuries are not down one bit from the 1970's. While I wouldn't call it a conspiracy, innings limits, the pitch count, and the 5 man rotation are a farce supported by the uneducated baseball higher-ups. They all need to go.

I like this.

[Matthew C.]

Where does he rank among starters? Of course most relievers won't produce more than 2 WAR


If he ranked 39th among starters,

15 teams in the NL
15 #1 starters
15 #2 starters = 30 pitchers
9 #3 starters = 39 pitchers

That puts Capuano in the middle of the middle group. Average.

HE was about 29th out of about 80 who started 15 or more games. Of course relievers are full of pitchers who are not good enough to be starters. So considering most relievers are worse than Capuano, he is still well above the median of all pitchers in value. This just shows why WAR has value, because "average" in WAR is above average in value reality. There are far more pitchers with fewer than 1.8 WAR than more. Relievers and starters. Therefore, Cap is certainly a guy you want on your team for the right price. Most guys cannot be starters that give you around 180 innings at a league-average ERA. That has a lot of value.