moonslav59

I would add that ERA- or ERA+ is better than just plain old ERA. Park affects and strength of opponents matter a lot. (Also, I arbitrarily set the innings limit at 500 over 5 years, so that eliminated many RP'ers from consideration.) Consider this... ERA Leaders 2017-2021 (500+IP) 1. deGrom 2. Scherzer 3. Kershaw 4. Verlander 5. Buehler 6. Kluber 7. Sale 8. Ryu 9. Cole 10. Strasburg ERA- Leaders 1. deGrom 2. Scherzer 3. Verlander 4. Sale 5. Kluber 6. Kershaw 7. Buehler 8. Ryu 9. Bieber 10. Bauer Now, with 250+ IP ERA- 1. Hader 2. deGrom 3. Scherzer 4. Jansen 5. R Iglesias 6. Verlander 7. L Hendricks 8. Clevinger 9. Treinen 10. Sale WHIP (250+ IP) 1. Hader 2. Verlander 3. C Green 4. deGrom 5. Scherzer 6. Y Petit 7. Jansen 8 Hendricks 9, Kershaw 10. Sale

Yes. My whole point was that looking at the list of the best all around players by WAR vs any other list based on just singular stats, you see that WAR seems more accurate. (Pitching is a little more iffy.)

Not only that, but starting Mata, a guy on the IL would really show you know nothing about the game. Seabold is struggling, mightily, and Groome isn't even above Whitlock, Winckowski and others on the depth chart for starters. Hill has pitched very well for many years. I'll take my chances with him and his measly $5M contract.

My eyes look at batting, fielding and running- not just one hitting stat. Which list represents that?

I guess I don't understand the game.

You know it when you see it. Look at my 4 lists for batters... To me, the WAR list looks most accurate.

Exactly, and though not perfect, I think it works pretty well. If you had to order the top 10 players over the last 5 years, which list looks closer to the right one? Best overall players since 2017 (1500+ PAs): List A 1. Brantley 2. Freeman 3. Blackmon 4. Trout 5. Altuve 6. LeMahieu 7. Soto 8. Rendon 9. J Turner 10. T Turner/JD Martinez List B 1. Trout 2. Betts 3. Jose Ramirez 4. Judge 5. Rendon 6. Lindor 7. Arenado 8. Bregman 9. Yelich 10. Bogaerts List C 1. Trout 2. Soto 3. Judge 4. Harper 5. Freeman 6. JD 7. Acuna Jr. 8. Rendon 9. Betts 10. Yelich List D 1. Betts 2. H Bader 3. Simmons 4. Kiermayer 5. Buxton 6. Judge 7. M Taylor 8. Chapman 9. B Hamilton 10. Gordon (A is BA, B is fWAR, C is OPS & wRC+ and D is UZR/150) ________________________ How about the best pitchers? (500+ IP since 2017) List A 1. deGrom 2. Scherzer 3. Cole 4. Nola 5. Wheeler 6. Sale 7. Morton 8. Verlander 9. Greinke 10. Lynn List B 1. deGrom 2. Scherzer 3. Kershaw 4. Verlander 5. Buehler 6. Kluber 7. Sale 8. Ryu 9. Cole 10. Strasburg List C 1. Sale 2. deGrom 3. Bieber 4. Cole 5. Kershaw 6. Scherzer 7. Kluber 8. Carrasco 9. Strasburg 10. Nola List D 1. Verlander 2. deGrom 3. Scherzer 4. Kershaw 5. Sale 6. Buehler 7. Kluber 8. Cole 9. Greinke 10. Strasburg The pitching lists are harder to rate. (A= fWAR, B= ERA, C=xFIP, D= WHIP)

Of course. I'd bet the gap is less than 1.0 by season's end, and maybe even JBJ equals or betters Renfroe. His dWAR should blow Renfroe away.

It's hard to know with Barnes. I think last year was the first time he was the clear closer for a long stretch, and he was lights out for 4 months. He followed that with 8 bad games and 8 s0-s0 games. He pitched 1 inning in the playoffs. I've always liked Barnes, but I share the concerns everyone seems to have. In many key categories, he's been in the top 20-30% of all RP'ers. In others, he near average, and a select few below average. I'm staying optimistic with him, but I'm not convinced of anything- good or bad.

It's not just about IP... Barnes Pitches throw before AUG 7th: 665 2021 915 2019 852 2018 Pitches per IP by season: 2018: 18.0 (1109/61.2) 2019: 20.4 (1311/64.1) 2020: 19.8 (455/23.0) 2021: 16.8 (919/54.2)

They have Renfroe at 1.7 fWAR and JBJ at 0.1.

His OPS against has been under .706 for 5 seasons and under .666 for 4 of the last 5 seasons. He likely won't be the best closer in '22, but he should be okay to fine. While his 80% save rtae was not great in '21, it wasn't bad, either.

Because he was pitching so well, his pitches thrown were not higher than his norm, by the time August 7th rolled around.

Barnes really just had an awful 8 game stretch- from 8/7 to 8/24 (1.510 OPS against). He wasn't great after that, but not bad. .739 in 8 games from 8/26 to 10/1. It seems so easy for some to think that 9 game stretch is who Barnes is. First 44 games (44 IP): .477 OPS against Next 8 games (4.1 IP) 1.510 Last 8 games (6.1 IP) .739 44 games of greatness, 8 of god-awful and 8 of so-so, and the guy's a bum!

Is Devers? (BTW, I'm fine with keeping Devers at 3B.)

"Total bases" is not "hits+walks." Hits don't count dbls as 2, triples as 3 and HRs as 4.

Maybe Cora's biggest skill, so far, has been cobbling together decent pens, when they look awful, or close to awful, on paper. Let's hope that's a repeatable skillset.

True. His 6.5% BB rate was the lowest of his career. Only his 7.3% in 2014 was close. His career BB% is 9%, and it was higher before 2021.

The infield is a mirror image of what it should be.

I think Barnes will be fine. He won't be like he was the first 3 months of 2021, but he might come close.

I think they paid him, assuming he'd miss one full season. The pay kind of matches that thinking, if you assume he'd be the pitcher he was before signing. Essentially, they signed him to $145M/4 with one no play year. That's $36M x 4. Still high, but as a free agent, at the time of the signing, that's what he might have gotten.

Barnes & Noble.

lol!

Agreed. I will add that we were missing our best starter, Chris Sale for more than two thirds of the season. Perhaps our best replacement starter, Houck, missed some time during Sale's injury, too, but yes, overall our rotation held up pretty well, health wise.

Not far off.