Pretend it's March. (I came up with this idea now and would forget it by March so just go with it.) Fantasy leagues are starting, and you are down to two players to choose for your first round pick. One played in the World Baseball Classic, the other didn't.
Well, I'm sure everyone has their own opinions on whether the WBC has an impact on player performance, but I decided to take a look at the stats. Well, here we go.
Following is a listing of every pitcher on the USA World Baseball Classic roster. I have also listed their ERA+ from the season before the classic and the season after.
For those of you who aren't into sabermetrics, ERA+ is a statistic based on an adjusted ERA. It takes park effects into account and the average league ERA for that season.
For example: A 5.00 ERA in Colorado back before the humidifier would receive a higher ERA+ than a 5.00 ERA anywhere else. An average ERA+ is 100. The higher the number, the better the season.
Now before you jump on the flaws of using ERA+, I will show them myself.
1) ERA is a flawed stat in the first place. ERA+ does a decent job of correcting it by using Park Effects and adjusting for the average league ERA but it still can't correct everything.
2) Players picked for the WBC most likely are at the top of their game or are veterans on the downturn of their careers. So, naturally, you should expect a slight decrease in their ERA+.
3) Small Sample Size. Obviously, looking at data for only 12 guys won't be conclusive but I don't have all day to look up data from the other teams.
We're going to send you the most entertaining MLB articles, videos, and podcasts from around the web.
9 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete