In a neutral ballpark, would you rather have the stats of Pitcher A or of Pitcher B (assume you know going into the season the stats will be duplicated)? If you want additional stats, let me know which ones and I will provide them.

Pitcher A
246 IP, 1.20 WHIP, 3.18 ERA

Pitcher B
162 IP, 0.82 WHIP, 1.22 ERA

The difference between the two pitchers is 84 IP, 162 hits+walks (1.92 WHIP), and 65 runs (6.96 ERA).

I'm pretty sure I could find a better pitcher than that to backfill the 84 IP difference, so I'd go with B.  Easy.

Posted by tecwrg on 8/14/2011 10:21:00 PM (view original):
The difference between the two pitchers is 84 IP, 162 hits+walks (1.92 WHIP), and 65 runs (6.96 ERA).

I'm pretty sure I could find a better pitcher than that to backfill the 84 IP difference, so I'd go with B.  Easy.

+1, same reasoning.

Would it change the analysis if Pitcher A was a better Dur/Sta combo and so could pitch deeper into games and log some CG along the way, which pitcher B couldn't?

Your pitching staff would change the analysis.   If you're scraping for innings, you take the guy who gives you 250 over the 160 guy all day.   Otherwise, you're throwing about 10 games' worth of innings to some slug.

Posted by zbrent716 on 8/15/2011 10:46:00 AM (view original):
Would it change the analysis if Pitcher A was a better Dur/Sta combo and so could pitch deeper into games and log some CG along the way, which pitcher B couldn't?

No, because you fixed the innings pitched in the example.

Mike, while your concern is theoretically correct, I've never had a team where I needed my last hitter so badly that I would be willing to effectively give 84 IP to a pitcher with an ERA of 7, as opposed to just carrying an extra, competent pitcher instead of my last hitter.

We probably build our teams quite differently(I know zbrent does).

League standing would also change the analysis.   If I knew I was a playoff-lock, I'd carry the better pitcher and not give a damn about 84 innings of slug.