Staff Blog
On Sportswriter Stats and Quality Outs
In the age of SABRmetrics more and more elaborate
statistical means of measuring production are becoming commonplace. Where before there was batting average now
there is OBP, WHIP is replacing ERA, and pitcher abuse points are replacing
innings pitched. Hell, PETOCA Adjusted Playoff
Odds are replacing the standing.
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Still, SABRmetricians do not love stats for stats sake. In fact, there are two statistics in particular
that the stats geek hate – saves, which they think is an absurd waste of resources:
why save your best reliever for a predetermined situation as opposed to throwing
him when he is most needed? they argue; and quality starts, any time a pitcher
goes more six or more innings and gives up three or less runs, which the SABR
community derives as a simplistic and ineffective means to measure anything.
Those two things have another thing in common – neither were
created by a statistician, sportswriters came up with both. John Lowe, who today writes for the Detroit
Free Press, came up with the stat while writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer
in 1985 and Jerome Holtzman, who died earlier this year at the age of 82,
created the save back in 1959 (just in time for the 1960 season). (BTW, h/t to
Mike Sielski, who came up with those two off the top of his head in no time at
all.)
I bring this up because while a part of me agrees that Ss
and WSs are junk stats, part of me loves writing about baseball, and it is so
easy to write about them. Brad Lidge is
28-28 in save opportunities, a point I can bring up every time he is brought
in. Sure, Kendrick gets knocked around
sometimes, but think of how many quality starts he throws! See, it’s easy.
That’s why I’m going to make a strong push for more
Sportswriter Stats (SSs?), which may not ever help insiders understand the intricacies
of the game but may give voice to casual baseball fans whose fathers taught
them to move the runner and who get confused when people tell them with
confidence that Joe Morgan should be fired.
So it is with great pride that I bring to you the Quality
Out (QO). A QO is any out that manages
to successfully move a runner over a base – a long fly to right that allows a
guy to tag up, a completed hit-and-run that gets a guy to second, and a ball to
the right side of the infield that allows a runner to move from 2nd to
3rd all count. An out is not quality if it is the product of a fielders
choice – if there are runners on first and second and the fielders get the guy
at second you will not get credit for a QO, no matter where the runner on
second ends up.
There, that should make fans feel a little bit better when
their favorite player grounds out to the right side, give fathers something
supportive to say to their talent less little leaguer and give the casual fan a
weapon to strike back against everyone who says that strikeouts really aren’t
that bad. Join the revolution.
