First, I would like to point out that as of right now, I have had
10,290 visitors this month. I am thrilled that so many people
have found my writing entertaining and have been willing to continue
paying my site a visit. Aaron Gleeman probably sent a few of
you here yesterday with his link. While I appreciate the
compliments he gave me, I know that the real reason he wrote those
kinds words was because he felt sorry for kicking my Diamond Mind
Baseball team's ass this week.
I joined a league with him a few months ago and the team I inherited
is bad - 2003 Detroit Tigers bad.
In fact, the Washington Cold Warriors fired their manager a few
weeks ago and replaced him with figurehead Henry Kissinger.
Anyway, couple the Cold Warriors' ineptitude with the fact that
Aaron's team is about 56 games ahead of me
within our division and that he played me this week, and it's no
wonder he had a little sympathy for me. In all seriousness,
thanks for the link Aaron; I can only dream of being about ten
percent as interesting
and thought-provoking in my writing as you are in yours.
Besides using that introduction to thank Aaron, it also ties nicely
to another participant in that Diamond Mind League. Bill
Liming is the author of
Phillies Fan in addition to being in the league. I really
like his writing style as well as the interesting studies he digs up
relating to strategy and roster construction related to the
Phillies. I finally got around to running of one his studies
on the Twins. Hopefully, he does not get too angry with me for
copying his idea, but I was curious and it was pretty cool.
Anyway, the study relates to the high leverage innings pitched by
members of the bullpen. Bill identified high leverage innings
as "innings in which the reliever comes on with the tying run
either on base or at bat, or with a 1 run deficit". That
seems simple enough to understand.
Now the whole point of this study was to see how frequently these
innings go to the best pitchers in the bullpen. In the
following table, I placed the pictures from top to bottom in the
order that I would like to see them enter the game in a close
situation (basically, a tie-game in the ninth inning with all of
them at my disposal). Here is the table:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
High Leverage |
|
Low Leverage |
|
Pitcher |
IP |
HLI |
HL% |
|
G |
HLS |
HLF |
HL% |
|
W |
L |
SV |
|
W |
L |
SV |
|
Nathan |
47 |
24.2 |
52 |
|
44 |
20 |
1 |
48 |
|
1 |
|
13 |
|
|
|
15 |
|
Rincon |
52.1 |
27.2 |
53 |
|
47 |
16 |
10 |
55 |
|
7 |
3 |
|
|
1 |
|
2 |
|
Balfour |
27 |
10 |
37 |
|
22 |
5 |
1 |
27 |
|
4 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Romero |
42.2 |
25.2 |
60 |
|
43 |
18 |
10 |
65 |
|
5 |
1 |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
Fultz |
40.2 |
11 |
27 |
|
43 |
10 |
5 |
35 |
|
2 |
2 |
|
|
1 |
|
1 |
|
Roa |
47.1 |
14 |
30 |
|
34 |
9 |
2 |
32 |
|
2 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mulholland |
35 |
7.1 |
21 |
|
23 |
5 |
2 |
30 |
|
1 |
2 |
|
|
