Pedro vs. Schilling
I’m in a fantasy league (yes, just one). It’s a head-to-head league. Before the season started, I traded Curt Schilling and Coco Crisp for Gary Sheffield and Pedro Martinez. Since then, Ben — the douchebag on the other end of the trade — has been boasting non-stop about how he got the better of our deal.
Essentially, Ben’s posts on our fantasy bulletin board sound something like this: “Curt Schilling is the greatest pitcher in the history of the game. He makes Chuck Norris look like a pussy.”
Earlier tonight, Ben posted this note describing all the ways that Schilling is superior to Pedro:
I … won’t point out that Pedro has ZERO wins in May.
None.
And in the spirit of not mentioning things…I won’t point out that Curt went 5-1 in May.
Hosed?
Yeah…YOU bitch.
Usually, I don’t use the Umpbump forum to settle my petty fantasy debates, but I think it’s worth it to look at the first 50 games of Pedro vs. Schilling — even though I know it won’t shut Ben up. Keep in mind that there are six pitching categories in our fantasy league: wins, ERA, WHIP, strikeouts, strikeout to walk ratio, and saves.
Pedro: REC 5-1 | SV 0 | ERA 2.50 | WHIP .81 | SO 88 | k/bb 5.12
Schilling: REC 8-2 | SV 0 | ERA 3.93 | WHIP 1.08 | SO 65 | k/bb 7.22
Both men have pitched in 11 games. As you can see, Schilling has three more wins. Pedro, on the other hand, has a significantly lower ERA and WHIP, and more strikeouts. Schilling has a superior K/bb ratio — 7.22. Pedro’s K/bb ratio is 5.12 K/bb ratio. Neither pitcher has any saves.
So which pitcher is more valuable? You decide. All I know is Pedro has superior numbers in three of the six categories that count (and neither pitcher will save any games this year). So I’m happy. (Ben will probably argue that Pedro is notoriously weaker in the second half of the season, to which I reply, “yeah, but Schilling is fat.”)
Now, you may be saying to yourself, “what about the Sheffield/Coco end of the trade?” Fair enough. Let’s look at what those two players have done so far this year, keeping in mind that there are six offensive categories that matter in our fantasy league — avg., HRs, RBIs, runs, total bases and SBs:
So who got the better of whom? Who will win out in the end? What do you think?
June 2nd, 2006 at 8:17 am
Weighing in on this fantasy debate from a slight Boston bias, I will say this:
Ben may end up getting the better end of this deal if two things happen:
1) Curt wins over 20 games and Crisp plays the rest of the season.
2) Gary Sheffield plays at more or less 75% effectiveness this season. Right now, this looks dubious (a dilocating partially torn tendon in wrist is not good)
Now, at the inception of this trade, yes, it looked like Coley got the better end of the deal if you assumed injuries wouldn’t come into play. Now that Crisp is back–and he looks awesome, by the way (Johnny who?)–Sheff is injured, and Schill has worked out of his funk, this fantasy deal looks decidedly lop-sided in Ben’s favor.
Pedro is certainly in a groove. He will definitely out-perform Curt Schilling as long as that toe does not act up on him. Going to the national league was the best decision Pedro could have made late in his career. Look at the guys who have come to the AL-Randy, Beckett, Vazquez, Pavano-over the past few seasons. All of their stats are not nearly as good in the AL as they were in the NL.
By juxaposition, look at how Roger Clemens’ numbers benefitted by going to the NL. Pedro will be great in the NL, he pitches into the 7th and 8th innings much more frequently now than he did in his last two seasons with Boston. Is this because he is suddenly “better” and has “something to prove” after being let go by the Red Sox? Absolutely not. It’s purely a function of being in the NL. Curt Schilling’s numbers would be equally nasty if he still pitched in the NL.
REPORT COMMENT
June 2nd, 2006 at 11:07 am
How can you say that “now that Crisp is back, this fantasy deal looks decidedly lop-sided in Ben’s favor”. If we’re going to take injuries into account, let’s consider that Crisp has missed the entire f’ing season so far. 7 weeks. Let’s assume that Sheffield misses an entire month with this hand injury. By the end of that month, he would just then be approaching the amount of time that Crisp had spent on the DL already. Then, all other things being equal, you have to say that Sheff is MUCH more valuable than Crisp…in the same amount of games, Sheff will give you more hr’s, rbi’s, tb’s, and arguably runs…he scores runs like it’s his job. He’s the total package.
And the Pedro Schilling argument is a wash…Curt will stop winning games and Pedro will start. It’s the law of baseball…Pedro has better stuff and is much cooler than Curt, just accept it you Red Sox geeks.
REPORT COMMENT
June 9th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Jimmy Key, Paul O’neill, Mike Stanley
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June 9th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
close…but no cigar.
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June 9th, 2006 at 1:54 pm
i shouldve known it wasnt stanley, even though he was so underrated….i’ll let someone else try and figure it out
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June 9th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
I’ll guess Jimmy Key, Don Mattingly, and Wade Boggs.
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June 9th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
You guys are close, but nobody’s gotten it yet.
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June 10th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
Key, O’Neill, and Boggs, then?
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June 11th, 2006 at 1:27 am
Yes!
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