Wood on WGN Radio Tonight

[Careless]

You guys have a valid point about wins not being the end all be all of a starting pitcher, but you lose ground when comparing Wood to pitchers like Clemens and Nolan Ryan. Those pitchers have won 20 games and are great pitchers. Sure they have had years when their win totals were low, but comparing them to KW doesn't work. KW hasn't won more than 14 games in a season... ever. Ryan and Clemens have. So before you spout that KW's win total is an aberration of his poor offense or bullpen, look at his career as a whole.

 

Besides, blaming poor bullpens for KW not having won more than 14 wins in a single year is pathetic. If he had better control, he wouldn't walk so many guys and run up his pitch count, leaving him too tired to throw deep into games he was leading when he left.

 

No one is comparing him to Clemens or Ryan, just using them as examples to show that the number in the win column isn't exactly the best way to judge how well a guy pitched.

 

But if you're so hellbent on individual wins, why aren't you looking at losses as well? He's only lost 54 games...for a .565 winning percentage. While that's not an eye-popping winning percentage, it's not that bad when you look at some of the Cubs teams he pitched for. Plus, I'm willing to overlook his 2000 season, since that was his first year back from Tommy John surgery.

 

Let's break down how you actually get a win. AS A TEAM, you need to outscore your opponent. This means that:

 

a) Your offense needs to score.

b) Your pitcher(s), with some help from the defense, needs to give up less than your offense scores.

 

Anyone with half a brain can see that the pitcher doesn't have much control over the first thing. So let's focus on the second: preventing runs. Wood ranks 17th among active pitchers in career ERA (min. 1000 IP) at 3.67. That tells me he's better than average at preventing runs. But let's look at some other numbers, too:

 

He's second among active pitchers with 10.4 strikeouts/9 IP.

 

He's 17th among active pitchers in WHIP at 1.257. While he may tend to walk batters, he doesn't give up a lot of hits. Fewer baserunners = fewer runs. That said, I would like to see his control improve.

 

Bottom line, Wood has pitched better than his win total indicates. With better offense and a better bullpen, he would have easily won more games from 2001-2003.

A little over a year ago I grabbed career winning percentages for a few pitchers

wood: 59%

schilling: 60%

pavano: 49%

clemens: 74%

pedro: 71%

ortiz: 63%

schmidt: 58%

peavy: 56%

At this time, the cubs had a 49% winning percentage in wood's career. Most of these guys played for much better teams that won far more of their games.

[Warpticon]

WHIP is fatally flawed, because it excludes:

1) HBP-Which is the responsibility of the pitcher.

2) No distinction between a walk and a HR.

 

Batting average is fatally flawed because it excludes

1) walks--which are the responsibility of the hitter.

2) No distinction between a single and a HR.

 

Or it could be that it's supposed to just measure hits per at-bat, and nothing more.

 

Seriously, your arguments are getting more and more contrived.