Wins for pitchers are overrated

I know I blogged about Tom Glavine reaching 300 wins already, but needed to clarify for my reader out there that I still think wins for pitchers is the worst stat used in baseball. And nothing else (other than losses for pitchers) is even close.

Think about it — if Johan Santana throws nine shutout innings but his team doesn’t score, he doesn’t get the win. If Roger Clemens pitches five innings and allows 10 runs, but the Yankees score 11 early and hold on, Clemens gets the win. Is that fair?

Pitchers with great run support, great bullpens and great defenses will get more wins than their actual ability says they should. And great pitchers with horrible run support, bad bullpens and awful defenses will get fewer wins than they should.

Baseball fans everywhere will be smarter when wins and losses for pitchers are no longer used.

Link roundup

Some interesting stories and blogs I found from across the Web today:

A very compelling story about prison inmates at San Quenting playing sports. (Riverside Press-Enterprise) — If the prsion guards say sports helps them contain the inmates, I’m all for it.

Could Michael Irvin be joining Dan Patrick in his new radio venture? (Larry Brown Sports) — Irvin and Patrick were entertaining together on the radio in the past.

Just Call Me Juice’s “Guys Who Obviously Never Took Steroids” series continues with the most obvious of them all: Juan Pierre.

Winter and Baseball has a great video and take on Barry Bonds. I too will be glad when it’s all over.