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Archetypecasting

One result that I found interesting was a comparison of the Relief Win average for various reliever types over time. Here is a table per decade for each type:

I find it interesting that the average reliever didn't prevent runs better than the average pitcher all-around until the Eighties. Also, middle relievers as a whole have never been better than average in this area.

The Relief Wins also show you when the various types took hold. A higher total indicates that the style was used more often and was successful. It also indicates that the better pitchers were assigned to the given role. The Nen type saw its Relief Wins climb in the Eighties and peak in the 2000s. The Sutter-type Relief Wins started to climb in the Seventies and then more than doubled in the Eighties before disappearing altogether. The Wilhelm type held sway in the Sixties but even though its numbers decreased it still captured high RWins until the specialization of the Nineties. The Face crew witnessed a lower peak but it did start in the Fifties. The Brown group actually didn't peak until the Eighties, I believe because of the resurgence of the long reliever in that era and because the talent assigned to the role when it was first used extensively was not the best on the staff but rather the tail-end staffers.

Now here are the top 10 (or so) for each archetype:

Clint Brown Type (Clint Brown was 219th with 1.43 Rwins)

Elroy Face Type (Face was 114th with 2.41):

Hoyt Wilhelm Type:

Bruce Sutter Type:

Robb Nen Type:

Middle Relievers:

Now here are the top relievers ranked by Relief Wins per year:

Here are the Worst based on per-year RWins:

Note that most are one-year tryouts. The worst with at least 5 years was Dan McGinn: -5.92 Total RWin over five years for a -1.18 yearly average. The worst 10-year vet is the great Pat Mahomes: -7.15 RWin over 10 years or -0.715 per year.

Next, here are the top relievers broken down by handedness. First, lefties:

Now righties:

Finally, here are the top performers by decade:

Hall Pass

To determine this, I used James' conversion for prevented runs to wins above average for starting pitchers. Here is a list of all of the Hall of Fame pitchers with the Starting and Relief Wins above average (including Monty Ward but not Babe Ruth). Also, listed are the average for all HoF pitchers, the standard deviation from the average, and the range that these two values prescribe:

Therefore, a reliever with 33.31 RWins is "better" than the Hall average pitcher. And pitchers within 15.37 and 51.25 are in theory within the Hall range.

Here are a few other Hall of Famers who went in as position players:

And here are some pitchers who are not in the Hall of Fame (Spalding and Griffith are in as executives):

Now, here are the Relief and Starter Wins for our relievers (minimum of 5 Relief Wins and 10 total wins above average):

So using our Hall of Fame average of 33.31, two pitchers not in the Hall would qualify. There are Goose Gossage and Mariano Rivera. I hope these results help solidify Gossage's standing as a solid Hall of Fame candidate. Rivera is still one year shy of qualifying for the Hall and, as with any active player at his peak, may suffer a decline that will negatively impact his Relief Win totals. However, he looks like he'll be a solid pick upon retirement.

There are 50 others that meet our Hall "range" (15.37 to 51.25 RWins). Of those I expect no more than a handful to get serious support (Sutter and Lee Smith and perhaps Franco and Smoltz). However, it is gratifying to see luminaries from relief pitching history "qualifying": Dan Quisenberry, John Hiller, Eddie Rommel, Ellis Kinder, Firpo Marberry, Mike Marshall, Ron Perranoski, and Stu Miller

I'd like to look at one more aspect of this Hall of Fame argument. Given that Relief pitching perhaps more than any other role is dependent upon trailblazers, men who establish the manner in which the reliever is used and whom others then lemming-like follow, then establishing who those pathfinders have been may be illuminating. Of course, this is highly subjective, but given that I have looked at relief pitching in every era throughout major-league history, I feel that I can provide a list of the more salient suspects. I'll split the list between the pitchers themselves and the men behind the scenes (mostly managers and Jerome Holtzman, inventor of the save stat) who made a difference:

First, here are the pitchers that have been the most influential:

1. Bruce Sutter
2. Dennis Eckersley
3. Joe Page
4. Doc Crandall
5. Firpo Marberry
6. Iron Joe McGinnity
7. John Hiller
8. Kid Nichols
9. Hoyt Wilhelm
10. Roscoe "Rubberlegs" Miller

Now the non-players:

1. John McGraw
2. Harry Wright
3. Herman Franks
4. Tony LaRussa
5. Bucky Harris
6. Walter Alston
7. Clark Griffith
8. Connie Mack
9. Leo Durocher
10. Jerome Holtzman

I think that the trailblazer argument could be used to help Sutter's and maybe even Firpo Marberry's Hall of Fame case. If the history of relief pitcher were reduced to one man, it would be Sutter. Is that reason enough to put him in the Hall? Probably not, but couple that with his very good career, and he has a good case.

To be completed...