I'd definately say Blanton. Meyer had a great year last year too, but nowhere near as good as Blanton's IMO. What Meyer did in AA was unreal, but his stay at AAA wasn't nearly as good as Blanton's, and it was in the light hitting IL as opposed to the heavy hitting PCL where Blanton did his damage.
"Jack, will you call me, if you're able?"
"I've got your phone number written, in the back of my Bible."
To say Blanton's stay in AAA, was easily better then Meyers isn't very saying ... unless you put a huge priority on not walking guys. Meyer struck out more, gave up less hits, and lower ERA (though his whip was higher).
Personally I say they are very very close. Blanton will have the better control, where as Meyer should give up less hits and get a few more K's. I think that both are good and not much seperates them right now.
That's not even close... if you only look at K's you're only looking at half of a pitcher's skills. Hits allowed is random, and is only a product of your K/BB. Meyer wasn't close to Blanton's level last year, and was in a much easier league to pitch in.
"Jack, will you call me, if you're able?"
"I've got your phone number written, in the back of my Bible."
The K/BB only shows what a great control pitcher Blanton is, you can just post his W/P9 if you wanted to show that. Also if you look at Meyer's K/BB ratio, everywhere else he has always been very good. To me that says he didn't adjust as well as Blanton, but still has very good control. Control can be worked on, especially when he has shown great control in the past, when that's the case I will look more at K's & H's.
But yeah Blanton had a very good year control wise, I still think he gave up to many hits though and expected his ERA to be lower.
Yeah Meyer's time in AAA was short, but I'm just saying he wasn't as good as Blanton there. Like I said, AA was awesome and he completely dominated.
And no, K/BB doens't jsut show how few walks you give up, it shows how good you are at striking batters out without walking them. It's probably the single most important stat for pitchers. I don't think any other stat correlates as well to ERA than K/BB. Hits allowed is just ridiculous to use.
As for control beign gained in time... yes it can be done but why bank on somebody gaining control when there's somebody who already has that control?
"Jack, will you call me, if you're able?"
"I've got your phone number written, in the back of my Bible."
I mainly meant the K/BB thing as their K ratio's weren't a big difference between the two. I agree it's an important stat, I just didn't like what else I saw from his stats or maybe I just wasn't that impressed from when I've seen him pitch. BTW I don't think hits allowed is ridiculous at all to use, it can vary but making people miss or put bad swings on the ball is useful. I'm not saying you can directly gather that from hits, but the fewer the hits the better chance it is happening. Looking back on it, Blanton did have the better year stat wise, though maybe me not liking him much when I saw him had an adverse effect of me.
I'll bank on it when they have shown control in the past (or in other cases if they are young enough), I think have better stuff, and being a lefty doesn't hurt.
The amount of hits you give up is important in what a pitcher's ERA will be, but looking at hits allowed is a bad way to project anything. All i t is, is a product of your K/9. Generally, all pitchers will have the same BAA if you don't count AB's which lead to HR's. This is not true for extreme groundball pitchers, but it is for most pitchers. That's why I say it's useless; it doens't reflect a pitcher's skill, as much as our intuition tells us it does. Guys like RJ and Maddux have had great seasons of BAA, and horrible season of BAA.
As for watching guys play... yes it may show potential a pitcher has, but it also creates biases which seems to be the case with you and Blanton. It may not be pretty how he gets it done, but a K/BB that high in the PCL can't be ignored. IMO there's no rookie that will come close to him in ERA, other than Bush if you still consider him a rookie (technically he is).
The reason I emphasize K/BB is because those are the stats (K's and BB's) that pitchers directly control and for the most part aren't luck dependant, while ERA and BAA are luck dependant and aren't good for projecting future performance.
"Jack, will you call me, if you're able?"
"I've got your phone number written, in the back of my Bible."
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by Fightin Phills » Mon Feb 21, 2005 2:07 am 
