Griffin Quick Hits
Just a couple eye-rollers from Griffin’s mailbag. I don’t even really care any more, but either I post them here, or email them to my friends for a chuckle. May as well share.
…Guys with great stuff that are always involved in low scoring games are going to have better Walks and Hits to Innings Pitched ratios because every inning is essential to victory. Guys on teams that score a lot of runs often pitch to the score of the game, like Jack Morris, challenging hitters with fastballs if they’re leading big. Their WHIP will naturally not be as good, while their win total is invariably better.
The idea of challenging batters with fastballs with a big lead is that it’s better to give up a solo home run than try and be too fine, walk a few guys, and give up a big inning. You’re supposed to be trading a home run or two for a lower WHIP, not the other way around- that would just be stupid.
Pitching to the score is highly questionable anyway (do you really see Roy Halladay ever giving up more runs than he had to?), but this is 100% backwards.
A: It’s an interesting idea, having Eckstein DH vs. some tough left-handers, while Johnny Mac draws a start at short.
On second thought, this would be a lot more hilarious if Robinzon Diaz hadn’t just started at DH.
