My latest at Hardball Times dusts off an old Bill James toy that attempts to show what a hitter’s output might look like recast as a pitching line. For example, if we take Adrian Gonzalez’s 2009 season, we get the following pitching line (see the article for methodology):

   IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  ERA SO/9
142.2 153 124 112 119 109 7.07 6.88

Then, because I’m not content to leave well enough alone, I found actual pitching comps for these lines, e.g.:

Player          Year    IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  ERA SO/9
Adrian Gonzalez 2009 142.2 153 124 112 119 109 7.07 6.88
Jason Bere      1995 137.2 151 120 110 106 110 7.19 7.19

I ran some career numbers, too. Here’s what I got for Gonzalez:

Year     IP   H   R  ER  BB  SO  ERA SO/9 Comp
2004   10.2  10   5   5   2   6 4.22 5.06 Scott Sanderson 1993
2005   40.1  34  16  14  10  37 3.12 8.26 Mike Mussina 1997
2006  142.2 173  97  87  52 113 5.49 7.13 Tom Gordon 1996
2007  158.2 182 116 104  65 140 5.90 7.94 Dave Stewart 1994
2008  157.0 172 109  98  74 142 5.62 8.14 Juan Guzman 1994
2009  142.2 153 124 112 119 109 7.07 6.88 Jason Bere 1995
Total 652.0 724 467 420 322 547 5.80 7.55 Jeff Juden 1998

So what? I dunno, it’s just fun. Read the article…

Tagged as: adrian gonzalez, bill james, geek, hardball times, stupid baseball trick