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Q.  Any other Bright Light Bulbs here?

A.  Also, you know that idea of putting low-walk, high-GB, low-K pitchers --- > in front of good fielders in a big park, to "exploit" your great out-conversion machine?

Don't do that.

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Here, look at another chart, MPH (and therefore BABIP) by pitcher strikeout rate, either in this new window or as pasted above.

Again notice Silva and Batista as poster boys.

SSI was partly guilty here, because at the time I wrote that there should be a synergy here.  Around 2008, the Mariners piled up Civic starting pitchers, MLB(TM) starters who strutted around training camp "wow'ing" everybody with their radiant presences.

Batista, Silva, and Washburn took their places in front of good fielders, in a huge park .... and nothing happened other than the Seattle Mariners' team defensive stats being ruined!

You might have a good defense and a huge park.  That doesn't empower you, at all, to stock up on Carlos Silva's to "exploit" your fielding excellence.  Even if you have great fielders, you want strikeout pitchers who induce weak swings and mild batted balls.

Why?  Because team batted-ball excellence is caused, to a large extent, by your pitchers who are forcing weak swings in front of your fielders.

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I've always been fascinated by this kind of invisible knowledge.  In 1955, God knew that because the Dodgers' pitchers had tons of K's and very few BB's, that they were going to get excellent pitching.  The kids watching didn't understand that.

In 1975, a bunch of mysterious things happened in baseball that I didn't understand.  Looking back, those things were inevitable, even simple.

Four years ago, God knew that Carlos Silva, Jarrod Washburn, and Miguel Batista were going to give up very high BABIP's, and that the 2008 Mariners were doomed.  Nobody watching understood that, but it was going to happen.

One thing that distinguishes SSI from most other baseball sites:  SSI thinks that there is a vaaasssssst pool of invisible knowledge out there, yet unseen.  Fundamental knowledge.

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Q.  Do you think defense doesn't matter much?

A.  Defense has always mattered -- but less and less throughout the years, as K's, BB's and HR's increase.

Of course Brendan Ryan is quicker than Kyle Seager.  But you might want to cut the defensive premium by 50%.  Fielders pile up their stats in part because of context.

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Dr. D, and most HOF baseball managers, assign a sort of "thumb on the scale" factor to glovework.  If in doubt between two players, give the job to the better defender.  Dr. D's intuition is open to debate.

Earl, and Sparky, and Whitey, made exceptions at three positions.  Shortstop, and Center Fielder.  (and catcher.)

And CF / SS is negotiable too.  The Yankees were great, with Bernie and Jeter playing poor defense up the middle.  But without a doubt in my mind, defense at SS and CF is worth paying for, if you don't have a Nick Franklin-level bat to put there.

It's just an opinion.  I see a baseball game as roughly 50% hitting, 38% pitching, and 12% glovework.  Some games are very nearly 0% glovework, in the sense that all batted balls would be caught (or not) by all 30 teams the same way.  But some games, a great catch decides the whole shebang.