Monday, May 2, 2016

Wei-Chung Wang doesn't recognize FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching), or does he?

A little dated, but in this interview with Kyle Lesniewski of Reviewing the Brew, he fielded this question about awareness of advanced pitching statistics:

The advanced stats say you may be suffering from some bad luck this season, given your high BABIP rate (.357 despite low 32.8% ground ball and 13.6% line drive rates) and low FIP. Do you look at the advanced stats at all, or do you focus more on the traditional things like wins and ERA?
This was Wang's reply: 

Wins and losses mean little at this level of the minors, so I don’t really pay attention to my win-loss record and I don’t look at my ERA. I keep my focus on the things I can specifically control during the games I pitch, especially walks and home runs. 
So though he did not assent to knowledge FIP, he appears to know that he could only control things like BB and HR, which along with K, comprises FIP. This is the FIP Formula;
(13*HR+3*(HBP+BB)-2*K)/IP+3.2