PGStaff, excellent post. Who would you rather face, great question, very simple question but very deep implication.
Quick often, people throw statistics to you but don't know how and the limitation of a set of stat. It's funny that all the laymen believe in stat mindlessly except the statistician. The statistician knows that stat can lie if you manipulate it enough. I love math myself but I hate if people tell me a stat and expect me to take it at face value. Show me the math, show me the formulation, show me the model, and most importantly, show me the prediction, to the past(to fit the model) and to the future. Nobody here has shown me how many walk-off HR is equivalent to a grand-slam, how many strike-outs is equivalent to a base steal, and etc.. How do we compare? What basis? What weights? How do we computerize the weights, basis, into the computer?
Now we are degenerating into discrediting the mlb players, incredible and unbelievable!