Quote:
Originally Posted by PuffyPig
Greinke an average pitcher?
He's averaged a 5.7 WAR over the last 5 years according to Fangraphs.
And I wouldn't compare the(2012) Cards $110M payroll to the Rays $64M anytime soon.
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Yes he's overrated. He had an outlier season in 09 but has been less than inspiring before and since. You can point out his WAR all you want, I would rather go by what the stats actually say instead of using a formula that has a [bias] for strike out pitchers. For example, according to Fangraphs Kyle Lohse had a 3.6 WAR last season compared to Wainwrights 4.4. There is no logical explaination that you could point out that Wainwright had a better year than Loshe last year though. I guess if strike outs are the end all when it comes to pitchers, as sabermatricians seem to allude to, then Wainwrights you're guy last year. I would have taken Lohse. It's another example where WAR, esp. pitching WAR has it's limitations.
I wasn't really comparing the payrolls of the Cards and Rays. I was comparing the approach. The Cardinals have a little bit of flexibility to spend but they have to be smart. They've also rebuilt the minor league system in recent years and seemed to rely more on their farm like the Rays do. The point I was making is that small and mid-market teams are forced to be smart with their money, both of which the Cards and Rays do.