“Throw Strikes. Home plate don’t move.” —Satchel Paige
A week ago, I wrote about the run expectancy stat (“RE24” or “REW”) as a measure of team offense. What can RE24 tell us about team pitching? I’m not sure it can tell us much about starting pitchers that we can’t glean from traditional pitching stats like RA/9 or FIP. But the run expectancy stat may be a better approach to comparing bullpen performance.
Relief pitchers can be difficult to evaluate statistically. They may pitch only a portion of an innng. Runs allowed are notoriously bad indicators because the runners on base may be charged to the previous pitcher, and the outcome of runners put on base by a reliever may be determined by the next pitcher.