tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746791569226671770.post243668606824749035..comments2009-01-09T11:02:19.856-05:00Mets Tailgatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05277228875185339113noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746791569226671770.post-46647458095907758882009-01-09T11:02:00.000-05:002009-01-09T11:02:00.000-05:00The Yankees infield defense was improved a bunch by Teixeira... A-Rod has been adequate at 3rd, but up the middle the Yankees might have the worst defense in baseball (although Robbie Cano Don't Ya Know had a solid year in '07 in the field).<BR/><BR/>I still think ERA has value for determining postseason awards like Cy Young, MVP, etc. cause it measures what ACTUALLY happened. ERA+ is also good for measuring past performance. But FIP is far superior for predicting future performance and a pitcher's true value.<BR/><BR/>I guess it's easy for me to say this cause I'm not in Pettitte's shoes, but if he doesn't take the Yankees $10 mil offer he can go screw himself. Does an extra $2-3 million mean all that much to him at this point? And what teams out there are going to give him that contract?Mets Tailgatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05277228875185339113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8746791569226671770.post-86396433670473353432009-01-09T00:22:00.000-05:002009-01-09T00:22:00.000-05:00Thanks for introducing this. FIP and FIP+ really make me think twice when evaluating pitchers. It has made me realize that Andy Petitte was INCREDIBLY unlucky last year. His 4.54 ERA looks bad but I feel much better about him after seeing his FIP+ of 118 and his FIP of 3.71. I mean he's not great but would be a very good number 4 or 5 starter for any team. I don't think he's worth much more than the 10 mil he was offered by the Yankees but I might consider giving him 11 or 12 million or maybe an incentive contract that would take him higher. He's good for 200+ innings most years and is projected to have a decent year next year although Bill James is nicer to him than Marcel.<BR/><BR/>He just suffered from some bad luck last year, probably due to a pretty bad defense he had playing behind him. Arod had a somewhat down year defensively, Jeter was...Jeter, Cano is OTL, and Giambi played most of the year at first... man that's not that good haha.AndrewDeJonoreply@blogger.com