View Single Post
Old 12-10-2009, 10:57 AM   #292
lungs
Pro Rookie
 
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Prairie du Sac, WI
Quote:
Originally Posted by JS19 View Post
Well put. I fall into the category of thinking Harden is a worthwhile candidate for a staff, I think it's just that with pitching at such a premium in MLB, it's hard to ignore the potential he brings to the table, especially at the relatively low price he is signing for.

Of course I've been looking at Harden through Brewers lenses. The Brewers had one of the worst starting staffs in the league last year, if not the worst. I thought signing a guy like Randy Wolf was much preferred to signing a guy like Harden. Wolf won't put up dazzling numbers like Harden has the potential to do, but at the same time Wolf is no slouch.

I've considered myself a stats guy for a long time but people keep throwing me these projections that Wolf and Harden will end up with the same WAR even though Harden projects to throw a lot less innings than Wolf because Harden's work will be higher quality. But I keep throwing out the fact that Harden on average is a 5-6 inning pitcher and and will tax the bullpen tremendously. Does WAR take that into account?

I love stats and put a great amount of stock into them but sometimes people just take them too literally and look at things in too much of a vacuum as if each individual player is on his own and not part of a collective entity that is a baseball team.

Nobody on here is doing that, but I'm talking about a Brewer site I visit and post where if I posted what I just posted I'd get jumped on as being anti-intellectual when in fact I'm quite the stats nerd myself.
lungs is offline   Reply With Quote