Fangraphs: Top 10 Worst Transactions of 2015 Off-Season

[Can_of_corn]

I must admit that I haven't studied it extensively and would be curious if anybody has.

But it would seem a given that pitchers with lower K rates benefit more from a team's great defense than pitchers with higher K rates. Combine that with the fact that pitchers with higher K rates tend to be more expensive than lower K rates then it would make sense for the Orioles, who have great defense, to not pay free agent prices for pitchers with high K rates, since those pitchers are worth more to teams with a defense that is not as stout.

I would be shocked to find out that pitchers that allow more balls in play wouldn't benefit more from a quality defense.

Once you factor out stuff like infield flies.

That doesn't really touch on what Babypowder was trying to say.

As for pitchers actually pitching to contact the only one I have seen real evidence of is Palmer.

[weams]

I prefer a system that distinguishes between a ball hit off the wall and a slow roller back to the mound.

Likewise.

[weams]

It's a real stretch to say that O'Day and Britton "outperformed" Miller last season. Why, because their ERAs were slightly lower? That's more than outweighed by the fact that Miller had a 14.9 strikeout rate (far better than O'Day's 9.6 and more than double Britton's 7.3) and that he allowed fewer base runners (0.802 WHIP, a bit better than both O'Day and Britton).

It's fine to predict that Britton and O'Day will outperform Miller in 2015. But they sure didn't in 2014.

I was measuring the results. Not the method of getting the results.

[clapdiddy]

I would be shocked to find out that pitchers that allow more balls in play wouldn't benefit more from a quality defense.

Once you factor out stuff like infield flies.

That doesn't really touch on what Babypowder was trying to say.

As for pitchers actually pitching to contact the only one I have seen real evidence of is Palmer.

I think you could include Mike Cuellar and Dave McNally in that camp as well.

[Can_of_corn]

I think you could include Mike Cuellar and Dave McNally in that camp as well.

I have not seen evidence to support it. It might very well exist but I haven't seen it.

[ledzepp8]

Miller pitched in front of a much worse defense most of the year. fWAR has Miller at 2.3, Britton at 1.1, and O'Day at 0.9.

Miller was easily the best pitcher of the 3 of them last season. Britton and O'day were also good but they are propped up a bit by the defense playing behind them, just like the rest of the Orioles staff.

I'm not really trying to argue that any of them were better than the others last year. I just think it's silly to say things like, "it's a real stretch to say that (they) outperformed Miller" or "Miller was easily the best pitcher of the 3". There are obviously stats that dispute that, as I illustrated.