Dal Times...
a Brian Bannister, che sarà un eccellente pitching coach:
Hernandez was 19-5 with a 2.49 E.R.A.
“I thought that could push him over the top, because his won-loss record was way better than mine,” Greinke said. “But I’m also a follower, since Brian Bannister’s on our team, of sabermetric stuff and going into details of stats about what you can control.”
Bannister, a right-handed starter, is known for his appreciation of modern pitching metrics, which emphasize the factors for which pitchers are essentially responsible: walks, strikeouts, home runs and hit batters. In Greinke, he found a like mind.
“He’s extremely bright, and he’s really picked up on using all the information out there to make his game better,” Bannister said by telephone. “He’s always had the talent. His confidence level, which is extremely high, combined with his knowledge of the numbers behind the game now, definitely makes him one of the best pitchers in the world.”
Bannister said Greinke has learned to adjust his pitching based on the advanced defensive statistics. Because of the size of the outfield at Kauffman Stadium and the strength of the Royals’ outfielders, relative to their infielders, it sometimes made more sense to induce fly balls.
“David DeJesus had our best zone rating,” Bannister said, referring to the Royals’ left fielder. “So a lot of times, Zack would pitch for a fly ball at our park instead of a ground ball, just because the zone rating was better in our outfield and it was a big park.”
To that end, Bannister introduced Greinke to FIP, or Fielding Independent Pitching, the statistic Greinke named Tuesday as his favorite. It is a formula that measures how well a pitcher performed, regardless of his fielders. According to fangraphs.com, Greinke had the best FIP in the majors.
“That’s pretty much how I pitch, to try to keep my FIP as low as possible,” Greinke said.
Mi immagino la faccia di Bannister e Greinke quando per "migliorare la difesa" gli hanno preso Yuniesky Betancourt :lol2:
Ma Dayton Moore che dice di non capire le statistiche difensive, quando invece i suoi pitchers le usano indipendentemente? Certe cose sono fantastiche
Il voto comunque è andato generalmente bene, se si eccettua il solito votante di Detroit che ha messo Verlander primo (ricordiamo i 2 voti di Detroit per Magglio Ordonez qualche anno fa per togliere l'unanimità ad A-Rod). Detto questo, la qualità generale dei votanti è fortunatamente in ascesa. Ora vediamo cosa combinano con gli altri premi... ma credo che Mauer sia sicuro e forse unanime addirittura. Non vedo troppo margine per sbagliare alcun premio quest'anno... perchè io per esempio darei l'NL Cy Young a Lincecum, ma non sarebbe uno scandalo se lo vincesse uno fra Wainwright e Carpenter per quanto siano vicini. Quindi a meno di svarioni imprevedibili ed improbabili, sarà un anno relativamente "giusto" negli awards.
