Originally posted by Just Lou: take the arguably #1 closer Mariano Rivera with his 7 wins and 43 saves, and compare it to some of the better set-up men. The numbers will probably surprise you.
Rivera had anywhere from about 30% to 50% more points than the top set-up men.
Quote:
Originally posted by Just Lou: The RP values are off the wall. A "save" has a net value of only 2 points, and a closer is starting the inning off in a -6 hole.
A save should have a net value of only +2.
A closer who doesn't save at least 80% of his opportunities is basically worthless, since the league average is way above that.
If a guy saves 50% of his games, he winds up with a net in the minus column, which is how it should be.
If a guy saves 75% of his games - way below the league average - he winds up with a net of zero, which is about what he's worth, since he's way below the league average.
SPs are different. A SP who goes 12-12 has much more value than a closer who saves 12 games and blows 12 saves, doesn't he?
And how do you figure a closer starts off in a -6 hole?
Because he's starting off with a "save opportunity"?
Well, yeah, but if he does his job that -6 becomes a +2.
He's only stuck with the -6 if he doesn't do his job, in which case he deserves the -6.
It's not like he has to do something special to get rid of the -6.
What I would have done if I had the option of doing so, was assign a negative value to "blown saves".
I would have made a save worth, say +2, and a blown save worth, say, -5.
So a guy like Rivera, who saved 43 of 47 would have wound up with a net of about +66, and a guy like Looper, who saved a putrid 28 of 36, would have been only +16.
But since Yahoo didn't have the option of making "blown saves" a stat category, this was the only way of creating an equation to allow for blown saves.
But if they did, I would have given a blown save a negative value and the effect would have been exactly the same and you couldn't say that a closer enters the game in a -6 hole.
