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It's common knowledge that the Yankees do not use Mariano Rivera in the same way that the Athletics used Rollie Fingers back in the day. Just how different are the ways that closers have been used through the years?


This is intended to be simply a gathering of information - I don't really have any conclusions or analysis to pass along. I just thought it would be useful to assemble the data. I went through the Game Logs of the top 100 pitchers on the all-time saves leaderboard. That includes everyone with at least 115 career saves, and it scoops up almost everyone of interest.

There are four other relievers I've added because of their historical importance although each had fewer than 115 saves. Almost all of their work was done before 1950 - Fred Marberry, Johnny Murphy, Hugh Casey, and Joe Page. Actual Game Logs are spotty in these cases, but between retrosheet and baseball-reference.com we actually have both Marberry (active mostly in the 1920s) and Murphy (active in the 1930s) covered.

We can only assemble partial records for Page and Casey, who had their biggest years in the 1940s - both men did their work in New York City and they were extremely impressive to watch. Page only had four years as a relief ace - in sequence, those years were brilliant, ordinary, brilliant, and ordinary. We're missing the last two (1949-50), which includes both his best season (1949) and the two years he worked for Casey Stengel. Page had 76 career saves, and we only have a game log for 40 of them.

Hugh Casey is best remembered for throwing the pitch that got past Mickey Owen for a passed ball in the 1941 World Series. Who knows why? His career was split up by the war, and he only had two seasons with more than 10 saves. We're missing one of them (1942), but we can account for 32 of his 55 total.

As you probably know, the save only became an official statistic in 1969 - all saves credited prior to that were done by people going back through Game Logs. Where they would, inevitably, encounter some very strange things. On July 19 1940, Johnny Murphy replaced starter Lefty Gomez in the fourth inning, with the Yankees ahead by a 10-5 score. Murphy finished the game and was credited with the always unusual 5.1 inning save. What ya gonna do? Gomez had been credited with the W, despite getting knocked out in the fourth inning.

I've encountered some very strange things myself. I've decided to use the widely recognized official figures for career saves here, but It's quite apparent that a number of them - Fred Marberry, Don McMahon, Lindy McDaniel for sure - are simply wrong.  A few months back, I mentioned some discoveries I had made regarding Fred Marberry's saves. There's lots more where that came from! For example: the official record gives Hoyt Wilhelm 27 saves in 1964, and that's what you'll find on his page at baseball-reference.com. But when you click the link to see Wilhelm's game logs for that season, you'll only find 23 saves. It appears, in fact, that the official record gave Wilhelm a save for every Chicago win that he happened to finish.

The same holds true, by the way, with respect to Marberry. He's still officially listed as having 11 saves in 1929, but the newly added game logs seem to confirm that he really saved just 9 games that year.

I've put those mysterious saves for Marberry and Wilhelm in the ? mark column - that is what it's for, after all.

Roy Face has 5 saves listed in his official totals that don't appear in the Game Logs (they appear here in the ? mark column.)

Don McMahon is generally listed as having saved 9 games in his rookie year of 1957, which seems quite impossible as he only finished 10 of the Braves victories and he was the winning pitcher in 2 of them. He's also generally credited with having saved 16 games in 1964. The Game Logs can only find 15 - the only other possibility (his team won, he finished the game) is the game of 25 June 1964 - he came in to pitch the final two innings with a 6-1 lead. I'm putting both games in the ? column, but I'm not too pleased about either even counting.

Jim Brewer is generally credited with having saved 14 games in 1968, but his baseball-reference Game Log (their career totals page agrees with the 14 saves) lists 15 saves. One of them, however, is the game of 16 July 1968, when Brewer came in with an 8-1 lead, one out and one on. I'm deleting that one and going with the official 14.

We have a similar case with Jack Aker, generally recognized as having saved 11 games in 1968. The Game Logs list 12 saves - one of them was the game of 14 May 1968. Aker came in with a 13-8 lead and two runners aboard with one out in the eighth inning. I'm deleting that one and going with the official 11.

Lindy McDaniel accumulated 172 career saves, according to every reference source you might want to look at. But when you add them up from the Baseball-Reference Game Logs, you find actually 175 saves.  Two of those, however, appear to be like the Brewer-Aker examples, with the Game Logs giving him for a save that the official record, correctly in my view, didn't give him. One of these came on 11 September 1960 (he came in with a 7-3 lead and just one runner aboard); the other on 14 April 1964 (he came in with an 8-4 lead, none out, one runner aboard.) However a McDaniel save that genuinely appears to have been overlooked came on 21 June 1959 - he came in to the game with a 5-1 lead and two runners on base, so the tying run was on deck. His career total should probably be 173...

Heaven only knows what else could be uncovered... I only found these ones because the total from the Game Log didn't match the total on the player's home page, and I was trying to figure out why.

The pitchers are arranged in chronological order, dating from when they made their ML debut, with two obvious exceptions: Dennis Eckersley and John Smoltz both had more than ten years as starters before becoming full-time relievers, and I've moved them accordingly. Could have done the same thing with Dave Righetti, I suppose. I've grouped them more or less by the decade they started their relief careers. I assume the columns are pretty obvious - we get the number of career saves that required one, two outs, and so on all the way up to 19 outs (Fred Marberry, 17 June 1924 - he relieved Tom Zachary with an 8-4 lead in the third inning and went the rest of the way. They gave Zachary the win).) After that comes total saves, total outs required in those saves, and the average number of  outs required per saves. I then just grouped the data from the first bunch of columns to more or less represent how many innings the pitcher was required to pitch in, and expressed the results as a percentage of the pitcher's career saves.
                                                                                   TOTAL              Outs Required (% of career)
Pitcher     1  2   3   4  5  6    7  8 9  10 11 12  13 14 15  16 17 18  19  ?  SAVES Outs Out/SV  0-3 4-6 7-9 10-12 13+

Marberry     11 15  13   7 11 10    4  7  9   1  0  6   2  0  1   0  1  0   1  2   101   547  5.53  39.4 28.3 20.2  7.1  5.0

Murphy     8  8  28   8 10 21    2  1  9   5  1  5   0  0  0   1  0  0   0  0   107   556  5.20  41.1 36.4 11.2  10.3  0.9

Casey     3  1  10    3  2  3    3  4  2   0  0  1   0  0  0   0 0  0   0 23   55   158  4.94  43.8 25.0 28.1  3.1  0.0
Page    6  3   3    6  2  5    1  1  3   2  3  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0 40   76   192  5.33  33.3 36.1 13.9  16.7  0.0

Miller     10  7  28  17 16 42    4  7 12   4  1  1   0  0  1   0  0  0   0  0   150   778  5.19  30.0 50.0 15.3   4.0  0.7
Wilhelm    11 24  44  14 17 39  11 10 38   5  4  6  0  0 0  0  0  0  0  4   227  1231  5.52  35.4 31.4 26.5  6.7  0.0
Face    24 24  58  13 20 26    5  9  9   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  5   193   724  3.95  56.4 31.4 12.2   0.0  0.0
Abernathy    14 17  28    6 23 30  11  5  8   2  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   144   660  4.58  41.0 41.0 16.7   1.4  0.0
McDaniel     17 23  34  12 11 23  15  8 14   5  5  4   1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   172   867  5.04  43.0 26.7 21.5  8.1  0.6
McMahon    19 15  36  14  5 34    5  7 12   1  2  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  2   153   685  4.54  46.4 35.1 15.9   2.6  0.0

Brewer      12 12  36  11 13 23    9  8  7   1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   132   591  4.48  45.5 35.6 18.2   0.8  0.0
Perranoski  14 14  42  19 12 37  11  7 10   2  3  7   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   178   886  4.98  39.3 38.2 15.7  6.7  0.0
Giusti      18 18  27  15  9 28    2  5 19   0  1  2   1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   145   681  4.70  43.4 35.9 17.9   2.1  0.7
Radatz     5 10  17  10 14 22    5 15 10   4  5  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   117   658  5.62  27.4 39.3 25.6   7.7  0.0
Aker    10 13  28    5 13 16  12  6 14   2  2  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   123   625  5.08  41.5 27.6 26.0   4.9  0.0
Carroll     11 17  35    8 18 19    5  5  8   3  3 11   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   143   728  5.09  44.1 31.5 12.6  11.9  0.0
Hiller    12 10  22  11 15 15    4  7 20   7  2  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   125   663  5.30  35.2 32.8 24.8   7.2  0.0
Knowles     13 16  27  15 14 20    9  6 15   1  2  5   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   143   714  4.99  39.2 34.3 21.0   5.6  0.0
McGraw     13 11  52  11 14 36    7  5 26   3  0  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   180   898  4.99  42.2 33.9 21.1   2.8  0.0
Lyle    31 28  47  24 18 35  16  8 16   5 10  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   239  1116  4.67  44.4 32.2 16.7  6.7  0.0
Marshall     9 11  42  17 15 38    8  9 26   4  4  5   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   188  1034  5.50  33.0 37.2 22.9  6.9  0.0
Fingers     38 20  81  30 37 61  20 18 16   3  5 12   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   341  1649  4.84  40.8 37.5 15.8  5.9  0.0

Garber    15 19  57  11  9 43   6  6 38   5  2 13   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   224  1231  5.50  40.6 28.1 22.3  8.9  0.0
LaRoche     13 20  21  16 11 19    4  7 10   2  0  3   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   126   579  4.60  42.9 36.5 16.7   4.0  0.0
Forster     12 15  25  10 11 15  10  7 12   2  2  6   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   127   650  5.12  40.9 28.3 22.8  7.9  0.0
Gossage     24 23  70  33 35 73  16 12 16   3  3  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   309  1452  4.70  37.9 45.6 14.2   2.3  0.0
Campbell     12 14  17    9  8 17  6  6 26   2  3  6   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   126   718  5.70  34.1 27.0 30.2  8.7  0.0
Lavelle    15 19  33    7 10 16   5  3 19   3  0  6   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   136   658  4.84  49.3 24.3 19.9   6.6  0.0
Martinez     24 19  18    9 16 14   3  3  5   1  3  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   115   449  3.90  53.0 33.9 9.6   3.5  0.0
Tekulve     16 23  44  21 17 28  11  4 14   2  1  3   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   184   833  4.53  45.1 35.9 15.8   3.3  0.0
Minton     10 17  30    8 14 32  10  9 16   2  0  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   150   758  5.05  38.0 36.0 23.3   2.7  0.0
Sutter     19 11  79  25 33 87  21 10 14   1 0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   300  1428  4.76  36.3 48.3 15.0   0.3  0.0
W.Hernandez  20 11  30  18 11 28    7  5 12   4  0  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   147   676  4.60  41.5 38.8 16.3   3.4  0.0
Stanley     5 20  23   9 10 17    5  6 20   6  7 4   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   132   750  5.68  36.4 27.3 23.5  12.9  0.0
R.Davis     9 18  28  22 10 23    3  4  8   3  2  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   130   582  4.48  42.3 42.3 11.5   3.8  0.0

Orosco    19 16  37   9 10 35    4  2  9   1  0  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   144   617  4.28  50.0 37.5 10.4   2.1  0.0
Quisenberry  12 20  52  25 15 55  15 14 31   2  1  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   244  1264  5.18  34.4 38.9 24.6   2.0  0.0
Reardon    34 28 153  39 33 54    8  5 10   1  1  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   367  1413  3.85  58.6 34.3  6.3   0.8  0.0
Righetti     18 18 108  27 25 39  10  1  4   1  0  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   252   981  3.89  57.1 36.1  6.0   0.8  0.0
D.Smith    17 12 115  16 13 24    2  0 10   2  1  4   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   216   842  3.90  66.7 24.5  5.6   3.2  0.0
Howell    8 10  56  18 12 45    4  0  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   155   644  4.15  47.7 48.4 3.9   0.0  0.0
L.Smith     25 23 260  47 29 79    5  2  7   1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   478  1782  3.73  64.4 32.4  2.9   0.2  0.0
Bedrosian    15 10  54  18 11 58    2  5  6   1  2  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   184   836  4.54  42.9 47.3  7.1   2.7  0.0
D.Jones   16 26 155  25 19 41  13  3  2   1  1 1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   303  1140  3.76  65.0 28.1  5.9   1.0  0.0
Henke    16 22 179  34 18 33    4  2  3   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   311  1092  3.51  69.8 27.3  2.9   0.0  0.0
Russell     14 20 101  23 14  9    1  0  2   1  0  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   186   620  3.33  72.6 24.7  1.6   1.1  0.0
Farr    9 15  86    5  2  5    2  2  4   0  0  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   132   447  3.39  83.3  9.1  6.1   1.5  0.0
Franco     24 19 291  30 23 28    3  0  6   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   424  1413  3.33  78.8 19.1  2.1   0.0  0.0
Aguilera    17 17 219  34 14 13  0  0  2   1  0  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   318  1032  3.25  79.6 19.2  0.6   0.6  0.0
McDowell    10  9  52    8 17 26   8  2 22   1  1  3   0  0 0   0  0  0   0  0   159   784  4.93  44.7 32.1 20.1   3.1  0.0
Myers    23 24 210  36 20 25   1  5  3   0  0  0   0  0 0   0  0  0   0  0   347  1169  3.37  74.1 23.3  2.6   0.0  0.0
Worrell     33 24 132  13 17 24   8  3  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   256   856  3.34  73.8 21.1  5.1   0.0  0.0
Jackson    13  9  84  10  7  7   5  2  3   0  1  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   142   501  3.53  74.6 16.9  7.0   1.4  0.0
Plesac    19 19  64  17 13 20   1  1  3   1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   158   554  3.51  64.6 31.6  3.2   0.6  0.0
Thigpen    11 12  98  21 18 33   5  1  1   1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   201   763  3.80  60.2 35.8  3.5   0.5  0.0
Ward    4  8  58    6  5 17   3  4 13   0  1  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   121   550  4.55  57.9 23.1 16.5   2.5  0.0
Mit.Williams 19 14 103  14 12 22   5  1  1   1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   192   666  3.47  70.8 25.0  3.6   0.5  0.0
Harvey    6 13  94  24 20 19   1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   177   631  3.56  63.8 35.6  0.6   0.0  0.0
Eckersley    24 28 232  43 35 23    2  2  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   390  1300  3.33  72.8 25.9  1.3   0.0  0.0
Henneman    14 17  82  23 14 33   5  1  4   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   193   733  3.80  58.5 36.3  5.2   0.0  0.0
Mesa    10 13 283    8  3  3   1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   321   957  2.98  95.3 4.4  0.3   0.0  0.0
Montgomery    8 18 200  24 15 37    2  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   304  1051  3.46  74.3 25.0  0.7   0.0  0.0
Brantley    5 12 105  12  4 22    5  2  4   0  1  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   172   642  3.73  70.9 22.1  6.4   0.6  0.0
Gordon    9  7 117  12  5  6    1  0  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   158   499  3.16  84.2 14.6  1.3   0.0  0.0
Olson    19 11 140  16 13 16    0  0  1   1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   217   705  3.25  78.3 20.7  0.5   0.5  0.0

Wetteland    16 16 226  34 20 16    2  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   330  1072  3.25  78.2 21.2  0.6   0.0  0.0
Rojas    7  4  58  20  8 17    2  4  6   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   126   511  4.06  54.8 35.7  9.5   0.0  0.0
Shaw    6  5 160  14  5  8    0  0  3   0  0  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   203   676  3.33  84.2 14.6  1.5   1.0  0.0
Beck    15 22 206  34  2  6  0  0  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   286   868  3.03  85.0 14.7  0.3   0.0  0.0
R.Hernandez  13 18 236  34 11 12    1  1  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   326  1035  3.17  81.9 17.5  0.6   0.0  0.0
Timlin    7  7 105    9  3  6    1  0  3   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   141   457  3.24  84.4 12.8  2.8   0.0  0.0
Wohlers    6  7  88  14  3  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0 0   0  0  0   0  0   119   361  3.03  84.9 15.1  0.0   0.0  0.0
Wickman     7  4 237    7  5  4   2  0  0   1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   267   827  3.10  92.9 6.0  0.7   0.4  0.0
Mik.Williams  8 11 118    4  1  2    0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   144   417  2.90  95.1  4.9  0.0   0.0  0.0
Guardado     8  6 160    7  3  2    1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   187   562  3.01  93.0  6.4  0.5   0.0  0.0
Hoffman     29 17 491  38  9  5    1  1  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   591  1778  3.01  90.9  8.8  0.3   0.0  0.0
Nen     5 11 264  18 10  5   0  0  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   314   980  3.12  89.2 10.5  0.3   0.0  0.0
T.Jones    15  7 264  19  4  7   0  1  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   319   985  3.09  89.7  9.4  0.9   0.0  0.0
Benitez     16 10 221   23  9  7   0  1  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   289   904  3.13  85.5 13.5  1.0   0.0  0.0
Bottalico     3 10  74   14  5  7   0  1  2   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   116   394  3.40  75.0 22.4  2.6   0.0  0.0
Borowski     6  5 118    1  1  0    0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   131   379  2.89  98.5  1.5  0.0   0.0  0.0
Isringhausen 13 11 225   29 11  3    0  0  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   293   908  3.10  85.0 14.7  0.3   0.0  0.0
Percival    11 15 300   20  6  6    0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   358  1087  3.04  91.1  8.9  0.0   0.0  0.0
Rivera    21 13 377  70 34 10    1  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   526  1695  3.22  78.1 21.7  0.2   0.0  0.0
Urbina    13  9 174  25  9  7   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   237   740  3.12  82.7 17.3  0.0   0.0  0.0
Wagner    7  9 334  24  7  3   0  0  1   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0  0   0  0   385  1185  3.08  90.9  8.8  0.3   0.0  0.0
Graves    6  6 122   14 12 18   1  0  3   0  0  0   0  0  0 0 0 0 0 0 182 642 3.53 73.6 24.2 2.2 0.0 0.0
Alfonseca 5 1 111 8 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 129 395 3.06 90.7 9.3 0.0 0.0 0.0
Foulke 3 3 132 24 13 14 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 191 669 3.50 72.3 26.7 0.5 0.5 0.0
Cordero 13 7 203 16 6 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 250 763 3.05 89.2 10.0 0.8 0.0 0.0
Gagne 6 3 148 22 3 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 187 589 3.15 84.0 16.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Koch 6 5 126 12 4 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 163 522 3.20 84.0 16.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

Nathan 7 5 224 9 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 247 736 2.98 95.5 4.5 0.0 0.0 0.0
Ryan 7 1 88 11 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 117 372 3.18 82.1 17.9 0.0 0.0 0.0
Sasaki 2 9 105 9 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 129 391 3.03 89.9 10.1 0.0 0.0 0.0
Fuentes 6 11 144 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 163 470 2.88 98.8 1.2 0.0 0.0 0.0
Smoltz 2 2 115 21 3 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 154 516 3.35 77.3 22.7 0.0 0.0 0.0
Lidge 7 5 171 5 4 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 195 588 3.02 93.8 6.2 0.0 0.0 0.0
Rodriguez 14 9 202 11 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 243 720 2.96 92.6 7.0 0.4 0.0 0.0
Cordero 1 4 114 5 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 128 394 3.08 93.0 7.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Valverde 4 3 144 12 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 167 511 3.06 90.4 9.6 0.0 0.0 0.0
Jenks 5 6 125 8 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 146 435 2.98 93.2 6.8 0.0 0.0 0.0
Papelbon 5 3 115 24 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 151 473 3.13 81.5 18.5 0.0 0.0 0.0
Street 4 2 103 10 7 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 129 410 3.18 84.5 15.5 0.0 0.0 0.0

Obviously, there isn't space to provide the yearly breakdowns for everyone - it took some doing just getting the career totals to fit...

As you can see, the-one-inning-or-less save, which accounts for more than 90% of Trevor Hoffman's career saves, generally accounts for less than half of the saves of the early relievers. Roy Face is the only early exception, and two men who also worked as situational lefties (Tippy Martinez and Jesse Orosco) accounted for slightly more than half their saves this way. It doesn't begin to become a trend until we get into the relievers emerging in the early and mid 1980s: Jeff Reardon, the Smith brothers (Lee and Dave) and so on.

Lee Smith is still ahead of Hoffman - barely - in most outs recorded in the process of collecting his saves. And the man who averaged the most number of outs per save was... Bill Campbell, one of the very few relief pitchers ever to qualify for the ERA title (167.2 IPT for Gene Mauch in 1976.) 


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Mike Green - Tuesday, April 06 2010 @ 10:59 AM EDT (#213161) #
It should, of course, be noted that the save rule came into existence in 1969, although BBRef has retroactively awarded saves to pitchers.  Another way of looking at this is from gamelogs like this one for Hal Woodeshick in 1964.  Woodeshick "led" the league in saves that year.  First off, note the first "save".  Woodeshick comes on with 2 out in the ninth and nobody on and ahead by three, and retires the batter and is erroneously credited with a save.  Then, check out the saves in May; some of them are long saves, some are short saves by modern standards (Woodeshick comes on with runners on 1st and 3rd and nobody out in the ninth ahead by 2). 

Woodeshick's season was pretty mediocre when you think about it.  The superficial numbers look good, but when you adjust for the context (and remember its effect on players like Joe Morgan and Jimmy Wynn) and the relief pitcher advantage, it was not really anything special at all.  Just about every team had a relief ace by that point, even if it was someone like the Cardinals' Barney Schultz.

Nice work, Magpie.
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