slm49

Yes. You and /u/ScorchingBonzai have to kiss now, that's correct.

She actually was married to Jim Carey!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Carrey#Relationships

Excellent explanation, and thank you for adding the caveat that DRS and UZR both have flaws. UZR in particular has egregious flaws (e.g. it doesn't even know where a player is standing at the start of a play). imo, even the advanced defensive metrics have only tenuous value, and we generally put way too much stock into them. I think we will see giant strides with FIELDf/x-based metrics.

fWAR says, "hey, there's only three things a pitcher can control: walks, strikeouts, and home runs allowed." So, fWAR's definition of "run suppression" is based solely on K/BB/HR. You cite Archer's high BABIP -- a saber-oriented person would attribute that to luck (i.e. quality of defense behind a pitcher). fWAR is more theoretical.

bWAR says, "hey, we want to measure what happened when the pitcher is on the mound: let's look at how many runs he allowed, including unearned runs". bWAR's measure of pitcher value is more conventional. bWAR is more outcome-based.

Now, people are sort of split on this (hence, there are two different metrics). Personally, I think people are too quick to throw around the word "luck". Inducing three lifeless ground balls to the shortstop may not be a repeatable skill, but it doesn't mean the pitcher was "lucky". To me, "lucky" a defensive player bailing a pitcher out with an amazing, unlikely diving catch that "should" have been a hit. Thus, I think the best way to measure a pitcher's value is by using bWAR.

I think ERA is the best metric for grading a pitcher, because -- sustainable or not -- it's what happened. Similarly, I think xFIP (as opposed to ERA) is the best tool for projecting how well a pitcher will do going forward.

The thing is, it's so hard to have discussions about pay without knowing location. $60k in the Midwest is a lot of money, $60k in California is like living at the poverty line. If one person is citing their salary is from location A and the other person is sharing their salary is from location B, it can be really misleading and not have really be a meaningful comparison.