The early returns on SIERA

For those not following the sabermetric updates Baseball Prospectus has attempted to create a new pitching statistic that improves on all those before it. This new stat is called SIERA or Skill-Interactive Earned Run Average. This takes the work of Nate Silver who created QERA to attempt to fix the combined issues in FIP and xFIP. So far the sabermetric community has put in lots of work reviewing, but what are the early returns?

Matt Schwartz and Eric Seidman are the main authors on this work and attempt to describe first why this new stat is needed. The biggest reason is that while FIP, xFIP and QERA are all very instructional they do have a problem. That problem lays in a potential weighting of the three factors pitchers control strike outs, walks and groundball rate. In this case QERA is the worst for that failing as stated here:

5/22: Meet the Mets, Greet the Mets, Come on out and Beat the Mets

There isn’t a better pitcher in baseball not named Zack Greinke than Johan Santana. Not the best draw for Dice-K in his return. Good thing we have the mojo working…

BOS 5, TOR 1: Sweepin

Toronto may sit atop the A.L. East Divisional standings presently, but one thing is for sure. The Blue Jays haven’t done anything against the teams that matter most.

So what exactly do we have in Michael Bowden?

I am not suggesting that Bowden isn’t worth keeping. It just feels like maybe the Red Sox know something that some of the aforementioned “scouts” looking at the organization externally, do not.
Developing pitching from within is the way to go. The pitchers are cheaper when young, which leads to less of a risk. $23 million can be gone in a split second when a pitcher throws over a 100+ pitches every five days.
So keeping quality young arms is imperative if a team wants to succeed.
But if Keith Law is right–and sees what is reality–Bowden may have been expendable in reference to the organization receiving their future catcher.

What could have been: A lament for Johan Santana

While we’ve already technically experienced Opening Day, or at least Opening Morning from a half a world away, and the Nationals walked off a win in their new stadium to [...]

Josh Beckett a goner after 2010?

“We’d better enjoy [Josh] Beckett the next three years,” one Boston Red Sox official said, “Because we won’t be able to sign him after his deal is up after 2010.” [...]

Santana Aftermath: Red Sox and Yankees debate their fate

Along with the rest of the baseball world, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with Johan Santana yesterday. I’ll be honest, I am not as high on Santana as some [...]

Santana to the Mets

Johan goes to the National League and we can keep our prospects.
In the end, it
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Forget about Huston Street.

The comments section of Fire Brand has been abuzz with trying to get Huston Street.
Forget about it.
Oakland has been linked to Boston outfielder Coco Crisp in past trade rumors, and [...]

Notes On Xmas Eve

I hope everyone enjoyed yet another Patriots win yesterday and happy holidays to all. Here
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