Quality Appearances

[Athletics GM (Jared)]

Toward the end of last season I posted a blurb I'd seen on Twitter about a custom stat in Fantrax called Quality Appearances that I think better suits the way today's pitchers are managed than Quality Starts. I mentioned at the time that I'd love to do a vote on it in the offseason. Well, here we are.

This what a Quality Appearance would consist of:
* 4 or more innings pitched with 1 earned run or less allowed
* 5 or more innings pitched with 2 earned runs or less allowed
* 7 or more innings pitched with 3 earned runs or less allowed

This does a couple of things in my mind:
- Gives credit to pitchers who are in systems that aren't going to let them go 6 innings no matter what.
- Raises the bar a bit for getting a point while giving up 3 runs. I've always thought the 6 innings was too high but so was the 3 runs allowed for quality starts. This feels more like what I consider a good outing.

We're not going to change this without a yes vote from at least 51% of the league. That said, I'm not going to be shy about giving this my full endorsement and urging you guys to vote yes. I genuinely believe this is an upgrade to our league.

[Angels GM (Todd)]

to get a quality start, a guy obviously had to start. this is an appearance under any circumstance that fits each description? the pitcher doesn't have to start the game, right? so a guy throwing the 6th-9th in a blowout still gets a QA.

[Rays GM (Bailey)]

That is correct. So a guy like Yarbrough who appears behind an opener cannot qualify for a QS, but can qualify for a QA.

[Athletics GM (Jared)]

Nov 8, 2021 3:00:47 GMT Rays GM (Bailey) said:

That is correct. So a guy like Yarbrough who appears behind an opener cannot qualify for a QS, but can qualify for a QA.

Yes exactly. That’s an added benefit I forgot to mention. Guys that go behind an opener and do good work should count and this stat does that.

It will also help with rookies who are on an innings limit.

[Deleted]

Nov 8, 2021 2:52:00 GMT Angels GM (Todd) said:

to get a quality start, a guy obviously had to start. this is an appearance under any circumstance that fits each description? the pitcher doesn't have to start the game, right? so a guy throwing the 6th-9th in a blowout still gets a QA.

I think it’s worth adding that while a guy throwing 4 good innings at the end of a blowout might seem like a trivial thing to reward, in today’s MLB that has significant value in terms of saving arms for the next day. It’s also a very small proportion of appearances that’ll be rewarded with this [potential] change