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Jonathan Papelbon and highest fraction of saves in relief appearances

Posted by Andy on June 10, 2011

Jonathan Papelbon recently recorded his 200th career save and he did it in fewer appearances than any other pitcher. His rapidity in reaching the milestone is an indicator not only of his skill but also just how specifically he has been used. Papelbon has pitched very rarely in non-save situations.

Here are the 14 pitchers who had saves in at least half of their games in relief:

Rk Player SV GR From To Age G GS CG SHO GF
1 Trevor Hoffman 601 1035 1993 2010 25-42 1035 0 0 0 856
2 Mariano Rivera 575 994 1995 2011 25-41 1004 10 0 0 850
3 Dennis Eckersley 390 710 1975 1998 20-43 1071 361 100 20 577
4 Troy Percival 358 702 1995 2009 25-39 703 1 0 0 546
5 John Wetteland 330 601 1989 2000 22-33 618 17 0 0 523
6 Francisco Rodriguez 285 561 2002 2011 20-29 561 0 0 0 433
7 Jonathan Papelbon 200 356 2005 2011 24-30 359 3 0 0 303
8 Eric Gagne 187 354 1999 2008 23-32 402 48 0 0 269
9 Bryan Harvey 177 322 1987 1995 24-32 322 0 0 0 278
10 Bobby Jenks 173 344 2005 2011 24-30 344 0 0 0 284
11 John Smoltz 154 242 1988 2009 21-42 723 481 53 16 204
12 Brian Wilson 151 284 2006 2011 24-29 284 0 0 0 212
13 Joakim Soria 139 264 2007 2011 23-27 264 0 0 0 207
14 Kazuhiro Sasaki 129 228 2000 2003 32-35 228 0 0 0 201
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/9/2011.

Below these guys, there are no pitchers with more than a handful of saves.

Notice how these guys are all modern, with Bryan Harvey the old man in this group if we ignore Eckersley. Harvey was one of the earliest of the modern-day 1-inning closers following in the footsteps of Eckersley.

Check out the guys right around Papelbon in career saves:

Rk Player SV From To Age G GS CG SHO GF W L W-L% IP H R ER BB SO ERA ERA+ HR BF IBB HBP BK WP Tm
40 Jeff Shaw 203 1990 2001 23-34 633 19 0 0 384 34 54 .386 848.0 821 368 334 234 545 3.54 120 91 3549 44 25 1 18 CLE-MON-TOT-CIN-LAD
41 Bobby Thigpen 201 1986 1994 22-30 448 0 0 0 356 31 36 .463 568.2 537 237 217 238 376 3.43 119 56 2448 28 23 4 12 CHW-TOT-SEA
42 Jonathan Papelbon 200 2005 2011 24-30 359 3 0 0 303 21 18 .538 391.0 299 118 103 110 458 2.37 195 30 1586 10 16 0 10 BOS
43 Brian Fuentes 198 2001 2011 25-35 579 0 0 0 356 23 40 .365 551.2 452 231 211 233 591 3.44 137 53 2349 25 49 2 29 SEA-COL-LAA-TOT-OAK
44 Mike Henneman 193 1987 1996 25-34 561 0 0 0 432 57 42 .576 732.2 686 301 261 271 533 3.21 131 47 3112 82 19 2 48 DET-TOT-TEX
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 6/9/2011.

Papelbon has 356 career games in relief. Of those, 234 (66%) were save situations and 200 (56%) eventually became saves.

Let's run the same numbers for the others:

  • Jeff Shaw had 614 games in relief. Of those, 302 (49%) were save situations and 203 (33%) became saves.
  • Bobby Thigpen had 448 games in relief. Of those, 264 (59%) were save situations and 201 (45%) became saves.
  • Brian Fuentes has 579 games in relief. Of those, 298 (51%) have been save situations and 198 (34%) have become saves.
  • Mike Henneman had 561 games in relief. Of those, 268 (48%) were save situations and 193 (34%) became saves.

So, Papelbon has much higher percentages in both categories than all the rest of these guys. This is, of course, because he's been a premiere closer for his entire career. The other guys above spent some time (usually at the beginning or end of their careers) as a middle reliever. It's not hard to imagine Papelbon becoming an 8th inning guy one day, so his own percentages may decline considerably over time.

Related posts:

    One-inning non-save-situation relief appearances
    One-inning relief appearances by league
    More on AL relief appearances
    Most career starts with no relief appearances.
    Homers in each of the first two career relief appearances

This entry was posted on Friday, June 10th, 2011 at 7:00 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

16 Responses to “Jonathan Papelbon and highest fraction of saves in relief appearances”

  1. stan cook Says:
    June 10th, 2011 at 9:12 am

    Does anyone know how long the current save definition has been in effect and what the success percentage is?

  2. Dukeofflatbush Says:
    June 10th, 2011 at 9:16 am

    haven't a few guys flipped recently (Soria? or Soriano?) for being used in non-save situations.
    Andy, I know this is a pet peeve of yours and just about every other sensible soul on our sight, but seeing a manager wait because he has a 4 run lead in the 9th, till the 'inferior' reliever has loaded the bases and turned it into a save situation, the- and only then bring in his ace.
    Or you and others have pointed out, that the highest leverage situation usually occurs in the 7th innings.

  3. Timmy p Says:
    June 10th, 2011 at 9:37 am

    Hey Andy did you see that graphic I emailed you about Berkman's home run last night? I'm not exaggerating the distance on that thing, it was huge! I estimate it to be 627' 4 " if it would have been allowed full flight. The replay is available on MLB.com and watch where the ball hits the roof at :45.
    http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_06_09_slnmlb_houmlb_1&mode=video

  4. jiffy Says:
    June 10th, 2011 at 10:52 am

    Re #1, I think it was 1969, there's a whole big writeup about it on one of the save-related blog posts from a little while ago.

    How managers use their relief pitchers in MLB is equally as stupid as how football coaches manage 4th downs.

  5. jr Says:
    June 10th, 2011 at 11:14 am

    I actually chuckled when I read Paplebon was a "premiere closer". The guy had a 3.90 ERA last year and currently a 4.50 ERA this year. He will be forgotten about within a couple of years.

  6. Mike Says:
    June 10th, 2011 at 11:29 am

    JR- I'm not a huge Papelbon fan, but he's got a K rate just under 12 and a BB rate under 2. That's elite, especially given his HR numbers.

    ERA is often misleading for guys who throw so few innings, in fact, early in his career, Papelbon posted absurd ERAs when he should have been around 3.00.

    His ERA this year should be under 3.00. He's been elite this season.

    Now would I count on that into the future, I don't know.

  7. Doug Says:
    June 10th, 2011 at 2:16 pm

    @5 @6.

    Papelbon usually gets the job done but, strictly anecdotally, I've seldom seen a game where he has an easy time of it. My impession is it almost always seems to be something of a struggle before he finishes things off.

    Perhaps, it's just because he's such a slow worker. But the impression you get from a typical Papelbon outing vs. a typical Rivera outing (for example) just seems so different.

  8. Creif Says:
    June 10th, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    625 feet? No. The longest home run all of last year was 485 feet, according to HitTracker.

  9. Dave Says:
    June 10th, 2011 at 3:11 pm

    Wow, I knew Eckersley had a decent career as an SP before become a closer but 100 CG's (as many as Randy Johnson) and 20 shutouts (3 more than Pedro)? Wow wow wow.

  10. Doug Says:
    June 10th, 2011 at 3:20 pm

    Looks like Rivera should have a good chance to pass Hoffman this year as career saves leader.

  11. Timmy p Says:
    June 10th, 2011 at 7:08 pm

    @8 I'm telling you man, Berkman's HR was so far it hit the top of the roof support in the lemonade dome beyond the right field stands. If you look at the angle, it is all most impossible to get a ball that's on a downward trajectory to hit that spot. I talked to someone at the game and they estimate the spot the ball hit would be 472' away from home plate, and that's if that spot was on the ground. The Cards had a big lead at the time and Lance was just swing at any pitch close. When he hit it he just hung his head like he was embarrassed.

  12. fredsbank Says:
    June 11th, 2011 at 2:22 am

    Eckersley completed almost a third of his starts.... impressive

  13. nesnhab Says:
    June 11th, 2011 at 7:44 am

    #1 and #4, the two major changes in the Save rule (there have been some minor adjustments):

    1969: became an official stat
    1974: some adjustments for merit (because too many managers were putting guys like John Hiller in to pitch to the last batter in a 15-2 game so they could fluff up their total)

    I could try to cite original research but I won't

  14. Jimbo Says:
    June 11th, 2011 at 8:14 am

    That homer was a bomb, but it was a high arc. I'd be surprised if it gets estimated at more than 460 feet.

  15. Fireworks Says:
    June 11th, 2011 at 10:39 am

    @ Creif, Jimbo

    In case you haven't realized by now, Timmy P is a troll. Ignore him.

  16. Johnny Twisto Says:
    June 11th, 2011 at 9:21 pm

    Timmy is high entertainment. As long as he keeps switching up his material and doesn't harp on the Berkman homer for the next 2 weeks, I'm a fan.

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