I'm having a hard time understanding how to take into account high FIP pitchers like Jon Lester or Edwin Jackson that tend to perform well/win. Usually when I see a pitcher like this, I assume they're contact pitchers.


Are pitchers like these benefit from exceptional fielding? (I believe Jackson is for instance)

Generally speaking, I tend to bet on Jackson, and generally it works out well for me. Lester had a couple bad games after the all star break but has had a couple quality starts since then.


Are pitchers like this just unordinary lucky? Can you look at stats like BABIP (over a period of time) to see if the results are fluky?


How do you guys make sense of them?