Dick Whitman
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2009
- Messages
- 45,703
No, it measures how often a pitcher let a runner cross home plate, which is the fundamental point of the game. Yes, league and park factors can skew ERA, but that has been addressed. These extrapolated stats are just hypothetical measurements. Nobody can say with any certainty why there is any divergence between ERA and xFIP for a single pitcher in a single season. ERA is a measure of what a pitcher is supposed to do, not let the other team score. That's all that matters over the course of a season. If you want to say Joe Blowe cannot do it next year, fine. It doesn't mean he didn't do it this year.
The point of an offense is to score runs. I know of absolutely no one who would argue that the most important statistic in evaluating hitter performance is runs scored.