Serious Baseball: What Makes a Good Relief Pitcher?

What makes a good relief pitcher?

Is it a low ERA? Is it a high strikeout rate? Is it a low walk rate? Is it a low HR allowed rate?

While showing a good level of performance in all the aforementioned categories will help make a reliever “good,” the above stats don’t cover all aspects of a reliever’s job. An extremely important part of their job, stranding inherited runners, is not reflected in any of those stats; but really should be.

A statistic that does reflect this aspect is appropriately called “Percent of Inherited Stranded.” This stat indicates exactly what its title says it says: The percentage of inherited runners that a reliever leaves on base. This is a very simple statistic that tells a great deal about how effective a reliever actually is. Yet you won’t find this statistic displayed during any broadcast of any baseball game.

As a matter of fact, Percent of Inherited Runners Stranded is just as important to a reliever as his ERA, and should be displayed directly alongside a relief pitchers ERA. I mean, there are two parts of a reliever’s job:

1. Don’t allow any batters you face to score (indicated by ERA), and
2. Don’t allow any runners you inherit to score (indicated by Percent of Inherited Runners Stranded).

Shouldn’t a statistic for each of these aspects be displayed? Without displaying Percent of Inherited Runners Stranded next to it, a reliever’s ERA is actually misleading when it comes to indicating his effectiveness.

For those who are unaware, here is a quick review of how ERA is calculated for relievers.
This example will set up the situation:

A pitcher starts off an inning by getting an out, then gives up two singles and is pulled out of the game with runners left on first and third base. Now, a reliever comes in and gets a pop out for the second out of the inning, then gives up a bases-clearing double, allowing the two inherited runners to score before getting a groundball for the third out.

-In this situation, the two runs that scored are charged to the first pitcher and credited on his ERA, while the reliever that gave up the hit allowing the runs to score is charged with zero runs, and no runs are credited to his ERA; essentially saying he pitched a perfect inning. The reason the scored runners are charged to the first pitcher is because he was the one that let them reach base in the first place.-

This example shows how a reliever’s ERA is misleading. I mean, it is blatantly obvious that the reliever in the example above wasn’t very effective; but his ERA (0.00) for the inning would indicate that he was. By looking at his Percent of Inherited Runners Stranded for the inning (0 of 2 = 0%) though, you’d see that he only did half of his job. You clearly need to see both stats to judge his effectiveness.

Here is a look at the top ten relievers in baseball this season by highest percentage of inherited base runners stranded; listed with their ERA (minimum 35 inherited base runners):

***Obviously, the higher the percentage of inherited base runners reliever strands the better he is.

InS: Inherited Base Runners Scored; InR: Inherited Base Runners***

Name	Team	InS	InR	% Stranded	ERA
J. Grabow	PIT	2	30	93.33%	3.83
J. Frasor	TOR	3	35	91.43%	3.39
V.Chulk	TOR	4	36	88.89%	3.5
R. Rincon	OAK	10	68	85.29%	4.54
S. Eyre	SFG	11	72	84.72%	2.8
S. Sauerbeck	CLE	7	45	84.44%	3.34
R. Cormier	PHI	5	31	83.87%	6.07
K. Wunsch	LAD	6	36	83.33%	4.56
B. Howry	CLE	6	33	81.82%	2.43
D. Baez	TBD	6	31	80.65%	2.86

Here is the bottom ten relievers in baseball according to highest percentage of inherited base runners stranded (minimum 35 inherited base runners):

Name	Team	InS	InR	% Stranded	ERA
Shouse	TEX	20	49	59.18%	5.62
Sisco	KCR	20	47	57.45%	2.85
Romero	MIN	18	42	57.14%	3.58
R. White	PIT	18	41	56.10%	3.63
Camp	KCR	14	31	54.84%	6.54
M. Wood	KCR	15	30	50.00%	3.94
L. Carter	TBD	15	30	50.00%	5.17
Gordon	NYY	17	32	46.88%	2.56
Koplove	ARI	17	31	45.16%	5.07
Timlin	BOS	18	32	43.75%	2.26

Looking at those lists, both of which show the two essential stats (Percent of Inherited Runners Stranded and ERA), you can clearly see which relievers are effective and which ones aren’t. Those pitchers with a low ERA and a high percentage of Inherited Runners Stranded are the truly effective relievers (ex. John Grabow, Scott Eyre).

The interesting thing about these lists though is how it unmasks the “frauds.” The “frauds” being those pitchers that have microscopic ERA’s but allow a large amount of inherited runners to score. The “frauds” include Red Sox reliever Mike Timlin, Yankees reliever Tom Gordon, and Royals reliever Andrew Sisco. All three of them are perfect examples of relievers that are only doing half of their job, but since ERA is the statistic that’s displayed during ballgames, they are seen in the public eye as “great relievers.”

This is 100% unfair to the truly effective relievers like John Grabow, and Jason Frasor.

So now I choose to use this opportunity as a writer in a public forum to beg television stations, to display this simple, yet very telling statistic next to a relievers ERA during games. It is very easy to calculate, and very easy to understand.

This will make it so that Yankee fans don’t think Tom Gordon is the next Rollie Fingers, and so that Red Sox fans don’t think Mike Timlin is the next Dennis Eckersley.

While networks do not want to display statistics that are too complicated for fear of losing readers/viewers, this stat doesn’t fit that category and can very simply be displayed and understood. By not showing this statistic alongside a reliever’s ERA all you are doing is leaving the baseball public ignorant to a part of the game that is of utmost importance.

This stat will not scare away viewers. It will only enlighten us.

PLEASE, I’m begging you.

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to email me at frnkbndy@yahoo.com.