There are many reasons to consider the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153save\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as being a fairly limited statistic. It is entirely dependent on opportunity and, due to the importance placed on them by many in the game, there is an argument that saves condition managers into using their best relief pitcher in a very narrow role. <\/p>\n
Closers are defined by how many saves they accumulate, yet the ninth inning may not necessarily always be the best time to use them. If a team is leading 4-2 in the seventh and the opposition have two men on with no outs, why not use your \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lights out\u00e2\u20ac\u009d closer to slam the door then and there? Yes the opposition will still have at least one if not two more attempts to score runs, but so will your offense. Cut down their momentum, keep your two run lead, tag a couple of insurance runs on in the eighth and the game probably never gets close.<\/p>\n
Of course, if it always worked perfectly like this then managers would do it. The trouble is, the plan only needs to backfire once and the guilty party will face a public character assassination. Follow the traditional route and even if it goes wrong, well you were just doing what any other manager would do in that situation. Try something different and you are going to need a very thick skin and a water-tight contract that means you get due financial compensation when you are sacked.<\/p>\n
But try telling any of this to Eric Gagne. Prior to the start of this season, Gagne had amassed 161 saves, the vast majority of which (152 to be exact) were accumulated during a three year period from 2002 to 2004. These saves brought him fame, fortune (at least $30 million in his career) and considerable accolades. The peak came in 2003 when he bagged the Cy Young award having registered 55 saves, joint second all time for a single season (Bobby Thigpen holds the record with 57 in 1990). And he even had a great signature tune (the intro to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Welcome to the Jungle\u00e2\u20ac\u009d makes many picture Gagne coming out of the pen) and a cool nickname (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Game Over\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). What more could a closer want?<\/p>\n
We all know the next part of the story though. His 2005 and 2006 seasons were wrecked by injury and he made only sixteen appearances during this time, picking up a comparatively paltry nine saves. Many considered this to be the end of the story: a star burned brightly for three years and then just burned out. <\/p>\n
Last night, Gagne made his Major League return in a Rangers uniform and got the strikeout and double-play ball to lodge his first save since last June. It’s very unlikely that Gagne will return to his 2002-04 form. It was a staggering period of performance that few relief pitchers in MLB history could equal, let alone better. Whether he can still be a reliable closer depends on how he adjusts his craft now he doesn’t quite have that 98MPH fastball, and most importantly whether he has overcome his injury demons. <\/p>\n
He still has a fair way to go to prove that he is well and truly back, but you have to start somewhere and gaining career save number 162 is a decent way to get things off on the right track.<\/p>\n
Stats provided by the incomparable baseball-reference.com <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are many reasons to consider the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153save\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as being a fairly limited statistic. It is entirely dependent on opportunity and, due to the importance placed on them by many in the game, there is an argument that saves condition managers into using their best relief pitcher in a very narrow role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4288,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/4288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}