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October 16, 2006


Q&A
by SG

I noticed a couple of questions in some of the comments sections so I thought I'd answer them here.

From Anonymous:

Mo quietly (to me, at least) had the lowest K-rate season of his entire career and still managed to get his 4th best season ERA+. SG, from the hip, do you know how this season compares to other seasons in regards to Mo's league adj. K-rate?


From the hip? Nope, but here you go after some calculations.



In this chart, BB+ and HR+ are the league average pitcher's HRs allowed/batters faced divided by an individual pitcher's numbers and multiplied by 100. A rate of 100 is exactly average, less than 100 is worse than average, greater than 100 is better than average. For K+, it's the individual pitcher's strikeouts/BF divided by the league's and multiplied by 100.

Mo's K rate was very low this season, but his BB rate was the best of his career. Mo's not young, so any decline in any statistics can certainly be a cause for some concern, but I wouldn't worry much. As you can see, his K rate seems to fluctuate pretty greatly from season to season.

From Twentyseven:

Hey, SG. I just want to see where Jorge graded out compared to other catcher soverall. Defensively, it seemed like he had a really good year, and offensively, he had the best season since what, 2003. Could you show me some stats on this?
Thanks,
TS


No problem Twentyseven, here you go.



In this chart, it's the same thing as the numbers I posted last week. BR are position-adjusted batting runs above average using linear weights, DR are the defensive runs above/below average for catchers. The catcher formula doesn't use zone rating, it uses SB, CS, PB, and errors, all compared to league averages. Total/162 just pro-rates the numbers over 1440 defensive innings and 650 plate appearances.

So Posada was the 2nd most valuable catcher in baseball last year. He had a great bounceback season from what looked to be the beginning of a decline.

If anyone has any other questions ask away.