[Honorable_Pawn]

The Rays keep track of a stat that measures the speed of the ball coming off the bat in mph. When batters hit the ball hard they are seeing the pitch better and it is a good indication of whether or not a pitcher is effective.

In fact, the Rays do not like to let pitchers be seen 3+ times in a game for this very reason. Batters tend to have a higher "speed of contact" after seeing a pitcher multiple times. FIP, BABIP, WHIP, and ERA are all important stats. But sometimes we try to glean too much information from a specific stat. No stat is 100% comprehensive. Sometimes you just have to watch the game. Sometimes you see a pitcher getting weak contact time and time again--the batters just aren't getting good wood. Sometimes the mph off the bat is very soft. Does this mean that the defense did all the work?

Hardly.

Sometimes a good pitcher pitches to contact and it has nothing to do with defense. The defense is not the reason the batters couldn't get good wood. In this situation FIP is highly-overrated. Sometimes a pitcher that just wins games is a better pitcher than a pitcher that has good indicators. Sometimes not. But this modern idea of completely discounting wins is absolutely absurd.

A good pitcher wins games--stats be damned.

Just saying.