Morris: Kevin Millwood, Rob Neyer, Evan Grant, luck, pitching, and defense

This is a blog post about a post by Evan Grant responding to a blog post by Rob Neyer commenting on a blog post by R.J. Anderson.

That I came across on Facebook…whew!

  So this may be a bit meta.

In a nutshell, Grant takes issue with Neyer’s endorsement of Anderson’s point, which is that Kevin Millwood hasn’t really been any better this year than in the past few years.

Evan makes clear his thoughts on Millwood right off the bat:

  By almost any evaluation, Millwood has been one of the top five or six pitchers in the AL this season.

I guess the problem is how one defines “top pitcher.”  In terms of runs allowed or ERA, absolutely, he’s been one of the top pitchers in the league.

But when we talk about runs allowed or ERA, we mustn’t forget the Tenth Noble Truth of Bill James:

  10. A great deal of what is perceived as being pitching is in fact defense.