Quote:
Originally Posted by uruguru
You do realize that Baltimore in the early 70s (e.g. when Palmer pitched) focused on having a great defense (Brooks at 3B, Belanger at SS and Blair in CF) and encouraged their pitchers to put the ball in play.
Strikeout rates then were not what they are now, so the idea of dominating the mound as a pure FIP pitcher was literally something pretty much only Nolan Ryan could accomplish.
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I do. And that by definition means the pitchers succeeded in part due to having an elite defense behind them and so weren't as good as pitchers who had better ability to miss bats. It also means that compared to pitchers who weren't as fortunate to have a great defense behind them, their surface numbers (Wins, ERA, etc) were likely inflated relative to their actual pitching value/performance.