The Angels' manager, Mike Scioscia, gets criticized by analysts for his reliance on one-run tactics like sacrifice bunts in a lineup full of sluggers like Pujols, Hamilton, Trout, and Trumbo. But one area where he goes decidedly against conventional thinking is his use of closers.
The Bill James Handbook has a section on relievers. Among other things, it counts, for each reliever, the number of long outings they make (over one inning) and the number of tough save opportunities (defined as when the pitcher enters the game with the tying run on base) they have.
For closers, the guy who gets the save at the end of the game, long outings have become rare. Here's a graph I did. It shows the number of saves of longer than one inning* per 100 games played per year over the last 40 years.
The Bill James Handbook has a section on relievers. Among other things, it counts, for each reliever, the number of long outings they make (over one inning) and the number of tough save opportunities (defined as when the pitcher enters the game with the tying run on base) they have.
For closers, the guy who gets the save at the end of the game, long outings have become rare. Here's a graph I did. It shows the number of saves of longer than one inning* per 100 games played per year over the last 40 years.
What the graph is telling you is that in 1984, 21 out of every 100 games ended with a reliever pitching more than one inning in order to get a save. That was the high water mark. This year, we set a new low in both the total number of 1+ inning saves (70) and number of 1+ inning saves per 100 games (2.9).
A lot of critics, both traditionalists and stats guys, don't like this trend. They say there's nothing magic about limiting relievers to just three outs, particularly since that one inning may not be the key one. Say you had a one-run lead against the 2013 Tigers. They have Cabrera, Fielder and Martinez due up in the eighth, and Peralta, Infante, and Avila after them. Don't you want your best pitcher going after the heart of the order in the eighth with the game on the line? But that's not how managers play it: the saves guy, the closer, comes in for the ninth inning only. As a result, the later innings are played more to the statistic--the save--than to the game situation.
Last year there were 37 pitchers who got at least 10 saves last year, and only 42 games in which a reliever got a save in which he pitched more than one inning (and fewer than three, as explained in the footnote below). Here are the pitchers with two or more:
Player
|
Games
|
IP
|
H
|
ER
|
HR
|
BB
|
SO
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
7
|
1.64
|
11.0
|
3
|
2
|
1
|
6
|
19
|
0.82
|
|
4
|
0.00
|
5.2
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
7
|
0.35
|
|
4
|
3.00
|
6.0
|
6
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
3
|
1.00
|
|
3
|
0.00
|
4.0
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
6
|
1.00
|
|
3
|
0.00
|
4.0
|
2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0.50
|
|
3
|
0.00
|
4.1
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
5
|
0.92
|
|
2
|
2.25
|
4.0
|
2
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0.50
|
|
2
|
0.00
|
3.0
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
0.33
|
|
2
|
3.00
|
3.0
|
4
|
1
|
0
|
2
|
4
|
2.00
|
|
2
|
0.00
|
2.2
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
0.75
|
|
2
|
3.38
|
2.2
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
3
|
0.75
|
|
2
|
0.00
|
2.2
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
3
|
1.13
|
|
2
|
0.00
|
2.2
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
0.00
|
|
2
|
0.00
|
2.2
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
1.13
|
|
2
|
0.00
|
3.1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
4
|
5
|
1.50
|
|
2
|
0.00
|
2.2
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
0.75
|
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 12/22/2013.
Number one on the list is the Angels' Frieri. Bill James tracks long outings in the Handbook, though it's not clear to me what his definition is. In any case, Frieri led the majors with 17, as many as the second- and third-ranked pitchers (Kevin Gregg, Cubs, 9; Addison Reed, White Sox, 8), combined.
How about pressure situations? As noted above, Bill James defines a tough save as one in which the reliever enters the game with the tying run on base. Here are the leaders from last year:
Pitcher Team Opportunities Saves
Ernesto Frieri LAA 6 5
Joaquin Benoit Det 3 2
Kenley Jensen LAD 3 2
Bobby Parnell NYM 3 2
Edward Mujica StL 3 2
Mariano Rivera NYY 2 2
Fernando Rodney TB 3 1
Rex Brothers Col 2 1
Danny Farquhar Sea 2 1
There were also eight pitchers with one tough save opportunity that they converted. But that's it. As with long saves, Frieri led the pack, easily.
It's not like the Angels are channeling the 1980s. The record for saves of more than one inning in a season was set by Bruce Sutter in 1984, when he had 30. Frieri had 7 last year. But it's a step; that's the most in the majors since 2010. Let's hope we move toward using the closer when the situation dictates, not just in the top of the ninth.
*There are three ways a pitcher who finishes a game can earn a save: if he pitches at least an inning with lead of no more than three runs; if he faces the potential tying run on base, at bat, or on deck; or if he pitches at least three innings. I excluded the last type of save from my analysis, because they're typically not all that hard. On August 28, Brett Anderson of Oakland inherited a 10-1 lead over the Tigers when he came in to pitch the seventh inning. Although he gave up three runs in the eighth, he pitched the last three innings of the game, which the A's won 14-4. He got a save. I think you'd agree that that's not a particularly valuable save. So I limited my definition of long saves to ones that are more than one inning but less than three.
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