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Padres bullpen

Posted by Andy on June 21, 2010

Check out NL relief pitching (through Friday):

Tm G GR IR IS IS% aLI
SDP 67 196 65 10 15% 1.064
SFG 66 175 114 27 24% 1.099
STL 67 189 82 18 22% 1.044
COL 67 198 105 24 23% 1.069
NYM 67 209 99 29 29% 1.105
ATL 68 189 69 20 29% .997
PHI 65 163 63 17 27% .952
FLA 67 183 93 28 30% .993
CHC 67 186 88 24 27% 1.023
LgAvg 67 193 91 29 32% 1.022
LAD 67 210 118 55 47% 1.000
CIN 68 208 113 43 38% 1.034
WSN 68 203 112 43 38% 1.113
HOU 68 193 81 31 38% .944
MIL 67 205 87 27 31% .972
PIT 67 203 85 31 36% .948
ARI 68 181 76 35 46% .998
1074 3091 1450 462 32% 1.022
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/19/2010.

They have an average number of games in relief, but check out their inherited runner stats. They have inherited a pretty small number of runners (which may be due to the strength of their starting pitching as well as how the relievers are used) but the have allowed a tiny percentage, just 15% to score. That's incredible.

For some more conventional numbers check out the regular splits by pitching role for relievers:

Rk W L W-L% ERA IP H ER BB SO WHIP SO/9 SO/BB
1 SDP 12 7 .632 2.68 218.2 163 65 61 233 1.024 9.6 3.82
2 STL 9 11 .450 3.13 189.2 160 66 68 146 1.202 6.9 2.15
3 COL 6 12 .333 3.21 193.1 168 69 61 158 1.184 7.4 2.59
4 ATL 14 6 .700 3.46 195.0 162 75 90 218 1.292 10.1 2.42
5 SFG 9 9 .500 3.53 173.1 161 68 86 171 1.425 8.9 1.99
6 WSN 14 16 .467 3.56 219.2 209 87 96 183 1.388 7.5 1.91
7 NYM 12 14 .462 3.73 215.0 202 89 111 196 1.456 8.2 1.77
8 PHI 7 7 .500 3.74 163.2 157 68 68 134 1.375 7.4 1.97
9 LAD 13 6 .684 3.78 226.0 202 95 88 190 1.283 7.6 2.16
10 CHC 8 11 .421 4.14 180.1 169 83 85 168 1.409 8.4 1.98
11 PIT 12 7 .632 4.34 228.0 207 110 108 208 1.382 8.2 1.93
12 FLA 5 12 .294 4.60 189.2 187 97 92 169 1.471 8.0 1.84
13 CIN 13 14 .481 4.82 194.1 217 104 93 165 1.595 7.6 1.77
14 HOU 11 4 .733 4.93 193.1 227 106 73 140 1.552 6.5 1.92
15 MIL 10 13 .435 5.62 224.1 258 140 97 211 1.582 8.5 2.18
16 ARI 8 16 .333 7.19 177.2 220 142 98 132 1.790 6.7 1.35
TOT 163 165 .497 4.14 3182.0 3069 1464 1375 2822 1.397 8.0 2.05
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/19/2010.

So the Padres bullpen has:

  • the best ERA, by a lot
  • the fewest walks (tied with Colorado)
  • the most strikeouts
  • the best K/BB ratio by a country mile

Excellent stuff. Given that their starting staff is also very good and is about average in terms of innings pitched per start, the bullpen hasn't been overworked so far and might just hold up through the rest of the season.

Related posts:

    Padres’ 5 shutouts
    Padres keep pitching shutouts
    The Padres, the playoffs, and losing 10 in a row
    Padres, Giants, & Braves, Oh My!
    Padres players missing the cycle by a double

This entry was posted on Monday, June 21st, 2010 at 9:15 am and is filed under Splits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

11 Responses to “Padres bullpen”

  1. JDV Says:
    June 21st, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    I really like the IS% stat, although I wonder if there is a way to break it down further. Obviously, it's not quite as impressive when entering a game with two outs and a runner at first as it is when entering a game with no outs and the bases loaded. If we take some middle ground like "runner(s) in scoring position with less than two outs", would the Padres pen still be the leader in IS%? Would the sample even be large enough to matter?

  2. Whiz Says:
    June 21st, 2010 at 12:29 pm

    JDV,

    A nice way to take into account the situation for relievers is Win Probability Added, or WPA/IP if you want a rate stat.

  3. Johnny Twisto Says:
    June 21st, 2010 at 12:49 pm

    Padres relievers Luke Gregerson and Mike Adams, neither of whom I've ever heard of, lead the majors with 17 holds each, both on pace to shatter the hallowed record of 36, held by Scott Linebrink and Tom Gordon.

  4. Andy Says:
    June 21st, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    JDV here is some more data on the bullpens.

    Tm Wgr Lgr SVOpp SV BSv SV% aLI ▾ LevHi LevMd LevLo Ahd Tie Bhd Runr Empt
    WSN 14 16 32 22 10 69% 1.108 76 52 76 86 33 89 69 139
    NYM 12 14 26 18 8 69% 1.095 81 35 95 96 40 76 62 150
    SFG 10 9 32 24 8 75% 1.092 73 37 70 90 25 66 67 114
    COL 7 13 19 13 6 68% 1.082 81 37 86 98 39 69 65 141
    SDP 12 7 24 17 7 71% 1.058 75 46 74 92 35 74 39 162
    STL 9 12 21 16 5 76% 1.053 72 43 80 96 38 61 53 142
    CIN 13 14 26 18 8 69% 1.031 86 36 79 95 35 81 63 148
    LgAvg 11 11 25 16 8 66% 1.025 69 38 85 86 30 83 55 145
    ATL 16 6 23 15 8 65% 1.017 68 39 86 100 34 65 46 153
    ARI 8 16 26 14 12 54% 1.005 61 25 79 65 32 86 44 139
    FLA 5 13 28 17 11 61% 1.004 64 42 80 88 21 81 53 137
    LAD 13 7 25 17 8 68% 1.001 76 47 88 97 34 86 70 147
    CHC 8 11 23 14 9 61% 1.001 58 36 87 80 23 88 53 138
    MIL 11 14 21 10 11 48% .979 67 27 100 88 26 96 47 163
    HOU 11 5 22 16 6 73% .963 49 33 114 64 13 126 52 151
    PIT 13 7 23 15 8 65% .956 64 44 87 64 27 120 52 159
    PHI 7 8 21 14 7 67% .952 48 28 85 78 25 66 40 129
    169 172 392 260 132 66% 1.025 1099 607 1366 1377 480 1330 875 2312
    Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
    Generated 6/21/2010.

    You can see that the Padres' bullpen has an above-average aLI (average Leverage Index) which means that their relief appearances have been, on average, a little bit more important in terms of game outcome. You can see that they have had more high-leverage and medium-leverage situations than league-average, and fewer low-leverage situations than league-average. They've had an above-average Save% too.

    Any way you slice it, their bullpen has been very, very good so far this year.

  5. Joe Says:
    June 21st, 2010 at 3:59 pm

    Holy Rattlesnake Batman! Arizona's bullpen has been awful!

  6. kds Says:
    June 21st, 2010 at 4:13 pm

    Some of SD's good numbers must be from their home park, including the higher aLI. (When you pitch in a lower scoring environment, you are more likely to have close games.) This early in the season there may be larger variations in quality of opposed batters also. Could check away games to see if this just a park produced mirage. (Though that would lead to greater sample size issues.)

  7. XZPUMAZ Says:
    June 21st, 2010 at 6:38 pm

    Sick, sick pen. Gregerson was insane against the Mets a bit ago. I think over two series he struck out six or seven of the ten or eleven batters he faced.

    They can't trade A-gon now, can they?

  8. maestro876 Says:
    June 21st, 2010 at 7:34 pm

    @Kds: There are plenty of park-adjusted stats that show it's not a mirage created by Petco.

  9. Kahuna Tuna Says:
    June 21st, 2010 at 8:31 pm

    2010 Padres bullpen, home vs. road:

    At home: 9 W, 4 L, 6 Sv, 130.3 IP, 92 H, 36 ER, 30 XBH allowed, 142 TB allowed, 32 BB, 147 K, .199 BA, .254 OBP, .307 SLG, .561 OPS, .270 BABIP, 0.951 WHIP, 10.2 SO/9, 4.59 SO/BB.

    On the road: 3 W, 3 L, 11 Sv, 94.3 IP, 75 H, 29 ER, 27 XBH allowed, 119 TB allowed, 30 BB, 94 K, .216 BA, .283 OBP, .343 SLG, .626 OPS, .271 BABIP, 1.113 WHIP, 9.0 SO/9, 3.13 SO/BB.

    Heath Bell's home ERA is 3.52, and his road ERA is 0.69.

    This bullpen is not merely a creation of Petco Park.

  10. Mark Says:
    June 22nd, 2010 at 5:57 am

    Wow, what an eye opener. I had no idea SDP were doing so well in this regard.

  11. DavidJ Says:
    June 22nd, 2010 at 11:11 am

    "They can't trade A-gon now, can they?"

    Definitely not, but their bullpen is so deep and so good that they might want to see if they could trade Heath Bell for a decent bat. They could use another good hitter to help Gonzalez out a bit. The SD offense is pretty much a one-man show.

    The most eye-popping SD bullpen stat of all is probably Luke Gregerson's K/BB ratio: 43 strikeouts against just two unintentional walks in 35.2 innings. Just insane.

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