Several researchers since have worked on defense-independent pitching stats. One, called FIP for “fielding independent pitching,” was developed by Tom Tango, co-author of Playing the Percentages in Baseball who maintains the Tango on Baseball site Tangotiger.net. Tango’s formula adds 13 times home runs to three times walks, then subtracts twice times strikeouts. The result is then divided by innings pitched.
FanGraphs.com does a couple of tweaks, first including hit batters in the walk element, then adding a constant. The constant has hovered around 3.1 in recent years and is based on subtracting league average FIP from league average ERA. It doesn’t change the order of rankings. It’s just there to give the final number a familiar ERA-like look.
...Let’s apply the formula to young White Sox ace Chris Sale: 13 times 17 home runs is 221. To that add three times (43 walks plus five HBP), or 144, for a total of 365. Subtract two times his 162 strikeouts, or 324, to leave 41. Then divide that 41 by 163 innings, and his raw FIP is 0.25. Adding the constant for results so far in 2012 leaves the 3.36 FIP listed on FanGraphs.
Is that good? Yes, very. Sale ranks fifth in the AL among pitchers with enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. He trails Hernandez (2.80), Justin Verlander (2.96), Price (3.21) and Sabathia (3.30). Jake Peavy also ranks high, eighth at 3.61.
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. Bob Evans Posted: September 04, 2012 at 12:53 PM (#4226195)I guess it's worth saying that, at least based on the url, this is coming from a major MSM outlet, and it's cool that FIP is in there. But beyond that... There's just nothing here.
Blue Jay announcers were marvelling over the precociousness of the 2010 draft - I wonder what the record for most WAR produced by a draft class as of draft year + 2 is?
Fair enough, but Sale's transition from pretty good reliever to amazing starter is still notable in itself. That happens...infrequently. Can anyone think of a good comp?
His K/BB ratio has gone up as a starter! I can't imagine that happens, like ever.
He's also given up exactly 1 unearned run this year which is also notable, and may be something to consider in the AL Cy Young race (to which I have paid no attention).
There are plenty of interesting things to talk about when it comes to Sale, who is the ace on a surprising division leader. I don't think the post needs to be especially provocative to start a long or interesting thread.
I think this article was pretty interesting. Apparently Sale has taken a formely meh slider and turned it into a dominant pitch. Cooper deserves a lot of credit, but so does Sale obviously.
CJ Wilson was much older, but he did it.
Wilson is a good comp. The notable difference is that he's a lefty and I thought of him as something of a different pitcher than Sale. Which of course leads me to wonder how organizations identify these guys and if there are any common threads between them.
In the Fangraphs article I linked in 7 they also mention Lance Lynn and Jeff Samardzija. They all (Wilson, Lynn, Sale and Samardzija) throw sliders and changes (If you count Samardzija's splitter as a change of sorts). I guess that's a pitch combo that lets you attack hitters on both sides of the plate three times through the lineup.
So he is. I've watched him pitch a couple times, I'm not really sure why, or how, I got that mixed up.
Well, Sale was only relieving because he's young and the White Sox didn't want to put too much stress on his arm. He was always going to start eventually. Wilson is a better example of this as an older guy who was established as a reliever and nothing but (and not a particularly great one), who then transitioned to a very good starter.
I have to say the Padres did a horrible job with that particular player development data point. #3 overall pick, out of college, in 1994. In May 1995 he's already in the big-league bullpen. He goes up and down between AAA and San Diego for the rest of 1995. In AAA bullpen for all of 1996, then brought up in August. Gives up 15 runs in 8 relief appearances (13.2 innings).
Then in November 1996 the Padres give up on him and trade him for Quilvio Veras. Quilvio Veras was obviously a very promising player at the time, but come on, San Diego, this guy was the NUMBER THREE OVERALL PICK.
Then the Marlins flip him for Cliff Floyd, a good trade for both teams. April 22, 1997 he makes his first start for the Expos and he spends the next four years in their rotation.
The nickname that seems to be gaining traction is Condor.
That's not what a FIP Code is.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main