Cliff Lee

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

Are you saying that, say, Felix Hernandez's stats weren't any good last year because he got to pitch against AL West opponents a bunch of times? If so, then you're basically insinuating that basically every baseball statistic in history is meaningless. Good luck with that argument.

No, not what i said. Are you saying that his stats wouldn't be more impressive if he pitched for toronto last year instead of seattle?

[slotdirt]

Originally Posted by dalakhani

No, not what i said. Are you saying that his stats wouldn't be more impressive if he pitched for toronto last year instead of seattle?

Impossible to know. I'd think it would be possible that facing the same team many more times over the course of a given year would equalize, in the case of a Toronto starting pitcher, the number of times that pitcher has to face a lineup like the Yankees or Rays. Moreover, we're talking about pitchers who only play 35 games maximum over the course of a 162 game season. Unbalanced schedules would seem to be statistically irrelevant when it comes to starting pitchers.

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

Impossible to know. I'd think it would be possible that facing the same team many more times over the course of a given year would equalize, in the case of a Toronto starting pitcher, the number of times that pitcher has to face a lineup like the Yankees or Rays. Moreover, we're talking about pitchers who only play 35 games maximum over the course of a 162 game season. Unbalanced schedules would seem to be statistically irrelevant when it comes to starting pitchers.

Do you think that maybe you should re-think this last sentence?

[slotdirt]

Not really. You're talking about 35 games, and in the case of the AL, that means 10 more games against division rivals than other members of the league. Throw in the two different stints of interleague play, and the pitcher who threw the most innings and made the most starts on the Blue Jays in 2010 pitched as many games against Texas (3) as he did the Devil Rays or the Yankees, but one less than he got to throw against...the Orioles.

Care to rethink your understanding of basic stats, dalakhani?

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

Not really. You're talking about 35 games, and in the case of the AL, that means 10 more games against division rivals than other members of the league. Throw in the two different stints of interleague play, and the pitcher who threw the most innings and made the most starts on the Blue Jays in 2010 pitched as many games against Texas (3) as he did the Devil Rays or the Yankees, but one less than he got to throw against...the Orioles.

Care to rethink your understanding of basic stats, dalakhani?

That would be the case if a pitcher truly pitched every fifth day but that isn't reality. Rotations are shaken up throughout the 6 month season due to injury, performance or matchup.

By the way, how is Michael Vick doing this year?

[slotdirt]

What does that have to do with anything? Great deflection.

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

What does that have to do with anything? Great deflection.

If you aren't bright enough to understand that the ace of a staff is going to face the teams in his division more than the teams in other divisions and why that happens, I can't help you. If you can't understand that this will seriously impact that pitcher's stats, I can't help you.

Lets look at Halladays starts last year:

s. ARI 1.00 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 9.0 6 1 1 0 0 9 .188
vs. ATL 1.44 3 0 0 0 3 3 2 25.0 17 4 4 2 4 17 .198
vs. BOS 9.53 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 5.2 8 7 6 1 2 1 .320
vs. CHC 7.50 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 6.0 7 6 5 2 0 3 .292
vs. CIN 2.12 0 1 0 0 2 2 1 17.0 18 4 4 2 1 19 .273
vs. COL 1.26 1 0 0 0 2 2 0 14.1 15 3 2 0 3 13 .273
vs. FLA 1.66 4 1 0 0 5 5 1 38.0 29 7 7 3 2 41 .210
vs. HOU 1.69 1 1 0 0 2 2 1 16.0 13 4 3 2 0 14 .224
vs. LAD 3.86 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 7.0 10 3 3 1 1 4 .370
vs. MIL 5.14 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 7.0 7 4 4 4 2 6 .250
vs. MIN 3.38 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 8.0 11 4 3 2 0 8 .344
vs. NYM 2.56 4 0 0 0 4 4 1 31.2 24 9 9 1 2 28 .207
vs. NYY 9.00 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 6.0 8 6 6 3 2 5 .320
vs. PIT 2.00 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 9.0 9 2 2 0 1 6 .250
vs. SDG 2.57 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 7.0 10 2 2 0 1 7 .333
vs. SFO 6.43 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 7.0 10 5 5 1 0 5 .333
vs. STL 1.29 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 7.0 7 2 1 0 3 9 .250
vs. TOR 0.00 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 7.0 6 0 0 0 1 4 .231
vs. WAS 0.39 3 0 0 0 3 3 1 23.0 16 1 1 0 5 20 .198


Notice a pattern there? Halladay started more than two times against only 4 teams. THEY WERE ALL IN HIS DIVISION.