It's whatever Beane and Theo say it is. And their sycophants at BP and Fangraphs concur.

For years, SABRmetrics has trumpeted "big stuff" pitchers and insisted that a pitcher's job is to "prevent runs". But suddenly Theo signs Jon Lester and I hear one of these sycophantic goofs say that the philosophy behind the signing was that Epstein didn't want to give huge long term money to a "dominating" fireballer like Scherzer or Samardzija because they are more likely to burn out their arms. He signed Lester because he "knows how to get people out". What is the stat for "knowing how to get people out" called?

And I don't disagree either. But when I say it, I'm some fucking crackpot or a hidebound fool from the past who can't understand that W/L record is meaningless. Theo or Beane say it, it's the gospel truth.

That's not what he said.

“He’s left-handed, and left-handed pitchers tend to perform better throughout their contracts than right-handed pitchers,” Epstein said, according to Greenberg. “He’s got the right kind of pitch mix that will allow him to age gracefully. He doesn’t get hitters out just one way, especially now that his curveball is back in the mix, where he’s working both sides of the plate. The cutter is a weapon that ages very well. If you look at Andy Pettitte, he aged extremely well through his 30s. He’s a reasonable [comparison]. The second half of Jon Lester’s career you want to look like Andy Pettitte.”

I'm OK with that

It's whatever Beane and Theo say it is. And their sycophants at BP and Fangraphs concur.

For years, SABRmetrics has trumpeted "big stuff" pitchers and insisted that a pitcher's job is to "prevent runs". But suddenly Theo signs Jon Lester and I hear one of these sycophantic goofs say that the philosophy behind the signing was that Epstein didn't want to give huge long term money to a "dominating" fireballer like Scherzer or Samardzija because they are more likely to burn out their arms. He signed Lester because he "knows how to get people out". What is the stat for "knowing how to get people out" called?

And I don't disagree either. But when I say it, I'm some fucking crackpot or a hidebound fool from the past who can't understand that W/L record is meaningless. Theo or Beane say it, it's the gospel truth.

It's whatever Beane and Theo say it is. And their sycophants at BP and Fangraphs concur.

For years, SABRmetrics has trumpeted "big stuff" pitchers and insisted that a pitcher's job is to "prevent runs". But suddenly Theo signs Jon Lester and I hear one of these sycophantic goofs say that the philosophy behind the signing was that Epstein didn't want to give huge long term money to a "dominating" fireballer like Scherzer or Samardzija because they are more likely to burn out their arms. He signed Lester because he "knows how to get people out". What is the stat for "knowing how to get people out" called?

And I don't disagree either. But when I say it, I'm some fucking crackpot or a hidebound fool from the past who can't understand that W/L record is meaningless. Theo or Beane say it, it's the gospel truth.

Theo said he signed Lester because; he has post season success, didn't have to give up a draft pick, was a club house leader and had a personal relationship with him.

He didn't say anything about not wanting Scherzer. (You can't include Samardzija with Scherzer and Lester. That's just plain stupid).

There's no doubt they love heat. Their whole bullpen is composed of fireballers.

You can't compare Lester to Andy Pettitte. He was a confirmed steriod user.

You know who else aged really well? Roger Clemens. I look for that in the second half of Lester's career

You can't include Samardzija with Scherzer and Lester.