Is GO/AO a pretty important pitching stat??

But every factor should be weighed. Groundouts have a lesser chance of turning into a hit than flyouts or line drives, meaning a higher GO/AO is usually a good thing. However, usually pitchers with very high rates for that have lower strikeout rates, making them more vulnerable to giving up tons of hits. Notice how Chien-Ming Wang has done without his best sinker this year. That’s your risk when you have a guy who gives up lots of groundballs without striking out a lot. When their game isn’t exactly right, and they don’t have excellent command, they generally get hammered at the higher levels.

Kidding, getting groundballs is the second most important thing a pitcher can do.

Is pretty pointless. Groundballs and Flyballs on the other hand is more useful. The SLG on groundballs is going to be much lower because they will never go for home runs, while fly balls go for HR’s 11% of the time across major league baseball.

GO/AO only considers OUTS, not balls in play and that in turn hides information and can be skewed big time by the defenders behind a certain pitcher.

It all depends.

Obviously a strikeout pitcher has more control over the outcome himself, but depending on the park that one plays in and the team that is in the field behind him, a lot can change. So from a raw talent/success in any environment, a strikeout guy trumps all.

As for the rest….

You really aren’t dying to have a flyball pitcher in Texas, nor would you want a groundball pitcher on turf (On the flip side, I could make an argument that I would let the grass grow a bit on my infield if I had infielders with a lot of range and a lot of groundball pitchers).

Also, to me, range would be much more important in the outfield if you have pitchers that allow a lot more flyballs and line drives.

I think a good GM says, here is our organizational philosophy, we want Groundball pitchers, infielders who can pick it, and outfielders who slug the ball. Then he builds a scouting staff and a development staff that supports those philosophies (and makes trades based on thos philosophies).