Other than that no we didn’t lose much…

So until Wheeler does something so far it would appear to be advantage Giants!
Slight yes, but they still got more out of the deal than we have so far on the MLB level!

It would seem a rush to judge is in order around here to attempt to get a WIN on the trade record as quickly as possible…

Clayton don’t take this as a personal knock I know you had to write something and this is what you picked but it is quite obvious to me that there is a battle of philosophical EXTREMISTS going on around here and your just feeding that by creating yet another topic for them to beat each other over the head with!

Kind of like inciting a riot if you ask me! LOL

“ERA has been forever and WILL ALWAYS be important. All the other stuff you mention is just used as an “out” or an “excuse”.”

Not a lot of room for interpretation there.

The fact is, ERA is a deceiving stat in the majors, where the environment is a lot more controlled. It’s almost useless in the low minors. Besides, its just result. It tells you what happened, but not why.

K and BB rates among other things tell you the why.

Besides, at the low levels, stats themselves aren’t overly important. Things like mechanics and velocity are what they are working on. Get those kinds of things down and the rest follows.

But as I said, the true value of the deal we will not know for sure for a few years, but so far it is looking good.

If you insist on continuing your charade, just tell us how Wheeler and Gee are different. What makes it ok to worry about a 3.99 A ball ERA and not a 4.76 AAA ERA?

oh don’t worry…i haven’t forgotten – if that 4.76 ERA is in his 1st year of AAA but it gets down to 1.87 in May of his 2nd year then bring him UP!. I’m not even gonna ask the rest!

What makes Wheeler any different from Gee? Both are young pitchers with bright futures. Why is it ok to worry about a 3.99 ERA in A ball and not a 4.76 ERA in AAA?

Don’t answer. It’s rhetorical.

And like i said OF COURSE most likely it won’t be the only stat you need to know but give me ERA ahead of the other stuff when talking about Zack Wheeler. OF COURSE I want to know his IP, H, BB, and K too – like always. The back of a baseball card as far as I know growing up didn’t just have the ERA on it and the rest just blank space. I’m talking common sense and not losing the forest for the trees. And it when it comes to sick and snarky you new breed people have the market on that.

And just because someone gets banned doesn’t mean they’re wrong baseball wise either so don’t concern yourself with that – just stick to your excel spreadsheets.

Clayton, you’re right about Wheeler and we all know it. ERA fluctuates drastically year in and year out because of some things pitchers have little to no control over and that phenomenon is far more exaggerated in the minors.

Keep doing what you do and writing as you write and you’ll be more than fine, while the people who criticize you because your smart enough to look for yourself and not regurgitate the same old outdated nonsense just because it’s there will simply have to accept what you write, or start their own blog to complain about it. I’m fine either way. The sick, snarky people who give traditionalists a bad name do more for your case than you do, if you can believe that. All the people who’ve been banned in the past year or so all have one thing in common.

I don’t agree with the premise of your article, but I’m happy for you that it’s what you think and not what you’ve been told. If minor league ERA was so telling, Dillon Gee wouldn’t be in the majors right now. His AAA ERA of 4.76 wasn’t exactly a “progression” of his low minors ERA. But his K/9 and K/BB improved from low minors to AAA and look……a good major league pitcher. Imagine that.

“ERA is not as important in the minors as SO/BB”

I did not say that ERA is not important because that is not true

Okay i’ll get right to the point. it is MORE important than the breakdown stats you mentioned. Over time those other breakdown stats can mean nothing but over time ERA will tell the true story, not SO or BB per 9 innings. OF COURSE those things are good to know but those things were always stored in the back of our minds growing up but now we have to explain everything whenever we have to talk about baseball and it’s really tiring.

Just look at his traditional stats in the minors like you would a baseball card and you’ll know if he’s progressing or not

And he has a good ERA anyway. It can be inflated in the lower levels due to the aforementioned reasons, so I do not see it as reliable of a stat in evaluating the pitcher himself in the low minors.

maybe Beltran hits the game winning World Series HR for them and is resigned. There’s still a lot of baseball and LIFE to happen yet, man. What looks good today may not even be anything of significance next month. Easy now.

Beltran has not worked out so far for them, so my point was that is 34 games of a struggling Beltran equivilant to a highly touted, borderline elite prospect? I don’t think so.