Inheriting Runners
Posted by Raphy on January 12, 2010
While Andy has been discussing "one-inning" relievers this week, I thought that it might be interesting to take a look at another type of reliever, the ones who come in with runners on base . In 2009, very few relievers pitched a significant number of games in relief while averaging more than 1 inherited runner per relief appearance. In fact, only Justin Miller accomplished this while pitching at least 40 relief games.
| Rk | Player | GR | IR | Year | Age | Tm | Lg | G | GS | CG | SHO | GF | W | L | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Justin Miller | 44 | 46 | 2009 | 31 | SFG | NL | 44 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 3 | .500 | 0 | 56.2 | 47 | 20 | 20 | 27 | 36 | 3.18 |
| 2 | Jamie Walker | 22 | 23 | 2009 | 37 | BAL | AL | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12.1 | 19 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 9 | 5.11 | |
| 3 | Chad Bradford | 20 | 21 | 2009 | 34 | TBR | AL | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 10.1 | 22 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 4.35 |
| 4 | Edwar Ramirez | 20 | 21 | 2009 | 28 | NYY | AL | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22.0 | 25 | 15 | 14 | 18 | 22 | 5.73 |
Historically, having as many IR as games in relief has not been a big deal. However, having at least 1.5 times the number is quite rare. Here are the players with at least 40 games in relief that are part of this unique group (1954-2009).
| Rk | Player | GR | IR | Year | Age | Tm | Lg | G | GS | CG | SHO | GF | W | L | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rich Gossage | 62 | 99 | 1975 | 23 | CHW | AL | 62 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 49 | 9 | 8 | .529 | 26 | 141.2 | 99 | 32 | 29 | 70 | 130 | 1.84 | 212 |
| 2 | Dave Hamilton | 55 | 83 | 1977 | 29 | CHW | AL | 55 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 4 | 5 | .444 | 9 | 67.1 | 71 | 33 | 27 | 33 | 45 | 3.61 | 114 |
| 3 | Bob Owchinko | 54 | 81 | 1982 | 27 | OAK | AL | 54 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 2 | 4 | .333 | 3 | 102.0 | 111 | 60 | 59 | 52 | 67 | 5.21 | 74 |
| 4 | Jim Kern | 48 | 78 | 1976 | 27 | CLE | AL | 50 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 10 | 7 | .588 | 15 | 117.2 | 91 | 38 | 31 | 50 | 111 | 2.37 | 146 |
| 5 | Jim Umbarger | 44 | 67 | 1975 | 22 | TEX | AL | 56 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 11 | 8 | 7 | .533 | 2 | 131.0 | 134 | 63 | 60 | 59 | 50 | 4.12 | 91 |
| 6 | Lindy McDaniel | 44 | 68 | 1973 | 37 | NYY | AL | 47 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 32 | 12 | 6 | .667 | 10 | 160.1 | 148 | 54 | 51 | 49 | 93 | 2.86 | 128 |
| 7 | Paul Mirabella | 40 | 67 | 1982 | 28 | TEX | AL | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 1 | 1 | .500 | 3 | 50.2 | 46 | 28 | 27 | 22 | 29 | 4.80 | 81 |
| 8 | Gene Garber | 40 | 60 | 1973 | 25 | KCR | AL | 48 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 26 | 9 | 9 | .500 | 11 | 152.2 | 164 | 78 | 72 | 49 | 60 | 4.24 | 95 |
Of course, when the games minimum is removed, some freaky occurrences come to the surface. Consider the case of Keith Glauber whose first (of two) season in the majors was 1998. Glauber pitched in 3 games that season, all in relief, and in doing so inherited 9 runners. Here are Glauber's gamelogs for the season.
January 13th, 2010 at 1:29 am
Before he finally got elected to the HOF, Gossage was fond of saying he got put into situations that even God couldn't get out of, and he got out of them. On the surface, that '75 season looks phenomenal. How did he get out of those situations?
He allowed 27% of inherited runners to score, compared to a league average of 34% (that doesn't adjust for base-out situation).
He inherited runners in 60 of his 62 games (this is quite shocking). He allowed one to score 18 times.
Five times he came in with bases loaded. Three times he prevented any runs from scoring (though each time he only had to get one out).
His most common appearance was to enter in the 7th with a 1-run lead.
According to Fangraphs, he led the league in WPA that season (by a wide margin).
It's interesting that all the seasons in the last table occurred during the "fireman" era. Gossage's 99 inherited runners are tied for 4th most ever; Wayne Granger had 112 in 90 games in '69.
January 13th, 2010 at 8:45 am
that's (obviously) why they were called FIREMEN. Top notch firemen were far more daring and death-defying that modern day closers.
Was Eckersley the first real closer - that is to say, Eck was not used as a fireman, but normally as a guy to come in fresh to start the 9th.
January 13th, 2010 at 11:52 am
It happened in stages, but I think there is some evidence that Sutter started breaking the mold of the '70s fireman type. After he kept tiring out in the 2nd half of the season in the late '70s, he started being used in a more predictable closer pattern, starting innings when they had a late lead (albeit usually before the 9th).
January 13th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Sup guys. As you may already know (since I'm famous), my old account got banned, but it finally logged me out so now I made a new account. I promise to behave now, though. Also this is a gnarly statistic.
January 14th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
This is a big day.
January 14th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Thanks, *poses for photos of me flexing my huge muscles*.