Posted by bad_luck on 7/20/2017 4:24:00 PM (view original):
I don't understand your problem with me saying offenses in 2000 were better (scored runs as a higher rate) than offenses in 2016.
It's a fact. If you want to talk about why they were better, that's fine. But it doesn't change the fact that they were better.
Perhaps, but again...FULL context.
If I'm not mistaken, homers are being hit at a historic rate these days. You know what Radke gave up a lot of? You guessed it - home runs. It stands to reason he'd give up more today than he did back then. And defense has no bearing on homers.
Also, Scherzer is a strikeout pitcher. He would've fared better than Radke in the 2000s because he would've relied on his defense for fewer outs, as I mentioned previously.
It's not as black and white as saying "2000 pitcher face better offense, give up more runs!" Would Scherzer give up more runs in 2000? Yes. Would Radke give up fewer runs in 2016? Probably, but not necessarily. The key question though is how they'd do relative to each other. There's no reason to think Scherzer wouldn't do better than Radke did in 2000 with similar circumstances. And there's zero reason to think Radke would be a Cy Young caliber pitcher in today's game. You're ignoring the key fact that, eras aside, Scherzer is a Top 3 pitching talent in today's game. Radke was never a Top 10 pitching talent during his career.