Does 1 WAR for a pitcher translate exactly as 1 WAR for a hitter? How do the weight of pitching stats compare to the weight of hitting stats? And what about fielding?
Which makes sense because preventing a run and scoring a run are equally valuable. Also, defense is added in to pitcher’s WAR value, just the same as for position players. I’m not sure how good of a job UZR (fWAR) or TotalZone (rWAR) do for measuring pitcher fielding, but it’s in there.
But there is another, completely separate issue that comes in to play for pitcher WAR, which is whether you use something like ERA, which includes contributions from the defense, or FIP, which is defense independent. Baseball-reference (rWAR) does the first thing and fangraphs (fWAR) does the second. This is why pitcher WAR values can vary a lot between those two sources. For more explanation of this issue, see Why Our Pitcher WAR Uses FIP and Why Our Pitcher WAR Uses FIP, Part 2
Relief pitchers are a whole other can of worms because you might want to take into account the high leverage situations that they pitch in, but then you also need to take reliever chaining into account (like if your closer is hurt, then you don’t give those high leverage innings to some scrub from AAA, you use the next best reliever in the bullpen).
they should match
Which makes sense because preventing a run and scoring a run are equally valuable. Also, defense is added in to pitcher’s WAR value, just the same as for position players. I’m not sure how good of a job UZR (fWAR) or TotalZone (rWAR) do for measuring pitcher fielding, but it’s in there.
But there is another, completely separate issue that comes in to play for pitcher WAR, which is whether you use something like ERA, which includes contributions from the defense, or FIP, which is defense independent. Baseball-reference (rWAR) does the first thing and fangraphs (fWAR) does the second. This is why pitcher WAR values can vary a lot between those two sources. For more explanation of this issue, see Why Our Pitcher WAR Uses FIP and Why Our Pitcher WAR Uses FIP, Part 2
Relief pitchers are a whole other can of worms because you might want to take into account the high leverage situations that they pitch in, but then you also need to take reliever chaining into account (like if your closer is hurt, then you don’t give those high leverage innings to some scrub from AAA, you use the next best reliever in the bullpen).
colin - January 12, 2012
thanks Colin
it is a little confusing but I think I get most of it.
Do Wins, Losses and Saves change WAR?
micdog2001 - January 12, 2012
WAR doesn't use some old school stats like wins, losses, saves, RBI, runs, etc
Because those stats are dependent on the context of the game, not just that player’s performance.
A'sFanDFW - January 12, 2012
makes sense :-)
thanks
micdog2001 - January 12, 2012
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