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To avoid spamming the general blog page with the Player Value posts for each season/team, this blog page will serve as a separate listing of all of the Player Value posts for each season/team. These posts will be less detailed, mainly just listing out the top players each season and including the necessary files.
Well, by "all-time", I really mean from 1912-2021, as that is currently the span of years that I have the data for. As the headline suggests, these rankings are according to my Player Value metric as of the date listed above. You can read my initial Player Value post here and its addendum here. Since then I have used Retrosheet play by play data to better fine tune the run value weights of the various events, but haven't been able to write up a post detailing them yet. Rather than listing them out again in this post, you can view them towards the top of my latest Hall of Fame post here. When we're discussing positional rankings, there's a couple of ways we can decide what a player's primary position was. For pitchers, this is fortunately less complicated than it was for position players. One approach is to do it based on games started: pitchers that started at least 50% of the games they pitched in are considered to be starters, while the rest are considered to be relievers. And that is how the starter/reliever split is determined for each season. The other approach is using the position that a player accumulated the most Player Value at. So if your starter seasons were more valuable than your reliever seasons, you'd be considered a starter, even if your career games started proportion leans toward you being a reliever. An example of this is Firpo Marberry, who started just about 34% of his games, but provided more value as a starter than a reliever. There's also the matter of if we should take a player's total Player Value for their career and then just group them by their main position, or should we only use the Player Value that a player accumulated at this specific position. This choice is a little trickier, so I've gone ahead and listed out the top rankings for each option. For the various defensive positions, I did top 25 lists. For the designated hitters I did top 10 lists due to their smaller quantity. There were only about 150 DHs, and about 1000 players at each defensive position. But we have over 6000 relief pitchers here, so I'm expanding it to a top 50 list. So, without further adieu: Top 50 Relief Pitchers From 1912-2021, Based On Total Player Value At All Positions
Whew?! That was a lot of players. Now to discuss some things before anyone freaks out and trashes the list.
Top 50 Relief Pitchers From 1912-2021, Based On Total Player Value As A RP
Guys like Eck fall here due to also spending some time as a starter. Top 50 Relief Pitchers From 1912-2021, Based On Pitching Value At All Positions
Some of you probably like this ranking better, and that's fine. The main duty of pitchers is pitching, after all (especially with the universal DH now in effect). And I think Pitching Value works pretty well, as does Batting Value. I think pitchers that were better hitters should be justifiably rewarded for that added value. The same should be true for pitchers that were better fielders, though I'm less confident with Fielding Value's current accuracy. I don't think it's blatantly wrong, but I wouldn't say it is as reliable as the batting and pitching components currently are. Top 50 Relief Pitchers From 1912-2021, Based On Fielding Value At All Positions
Since relievers bat considerably less often than starters, I will only list out the top 25 hitting relief pitchers. Top 25 Relief Pitchers From 1912-2021, Based On Batting Value At All Positions
In addition to being a good fielder, we see that Kaat was also one of the better hitting relievers. He hit 16 HRs in his career and had a .227 OBP; the league average OBP across all positions during his career was .330. Dutch Ruether played in earlier years when homers were less common and just hit 7 in his career, but his career OBP of .314 compares more favorably to the league average during his career of .347. Top 10 Relief Pitchers From 1912-2021, Based On Baserunning Value At All Positions
Mitchell stole 9 bases in his career and was caught once. Sutcliffe, Steele, and Valdez all stole 4 bases and were never caught. Marquard stole 6 bases and was caught twice. So that shows the minimal impact that a reliever's baserunning abilities has on their value... From the span of 1912-2021, I have 6,160 players that contributed most of their value as relief pitchers. If you go based off of games played, however, there are 6,098 relief pitchers in this span. There are a total of 8,394 pitchers in this span. Recall that we had 8,646 total position players in this span. Combining this, we have a total of about 17,040 players from 1912-2021. Baseball Reference says there have been 22,860 players in history, so the remaining guys must have been Negro Leagues players or played before 1912. So to be in the top 1%, a pitcher would have to be among the top 60-61 relievers during this span. To be in the top 1.18% (the general Hall of Fame mark), a player would have to be among the top 71-72 relievers during this span. There are currently 14 relief pitchers in the Hall of Fame. Because of the revolution of the reliever role over time, there are actually no pre-1912 relievers or Negro League relievers in Cooperstown. I will again mention that Satchell Paige appears in my dataset since he was mainly a reliever when he played in MLB at the end of his career; he is most famous for his dominance as a starter in the Negro Leagues. Note that this initial 14 includes Jim Kaat, Jim Bunning, Chief Bender, Rube Marquard, Waite Hoyt, and Jesse Haines, all of whom we consider as primarily relievers based on value, despite proportionally playing more games as starters. Tommy Lasorda was primarily a reliever during his playing career, but was inducted as a manager. Clark Griffith was mainly a reliever by value, but was inducted as a pioneer/executive. So we have 14 Hall of Fame relievers to work with. If we look at the top 14 relief pitchers according to Player Value, 6 of them are in Cooperstown. Therefore, we have 8 exceptions of Hall of Famers that aren't in the top 14. Those 8 exceptions are Bruce Sutter (18), Waite Hoyt (28), Lee Smith (42), Chief Bender (91), Jim Bunning (3821), Rube Marquard (5360), Jim Kaat( 5366), and Jesse Haines (6053). At 18th, Sutter falls just outside of the top 14. However, 3 of the top 14 pitchers are still active or retired and still on the ballot (Wagner, Kimbrel, and Jansen). So if we want to exclude those players and instead expand our border to the next 3 relievers (i.e. the top 17), then Sutter is even closer. If we just go off of Pitching Value, Sutter is slightly higher at 16th. He was one of the earlier revolutionary closers when the role began to flourish. He was also one of the rare closers to win the Cy Young award. He went to 6 All-Star games and was named the Reliever of the Year 4 times. Player Value doesn't really agree on these accolades, giving 0 Cy Youngs, 1 Reliever of the Year, and 2 All-Star games. But even given his solid actual accolades, it took him 14 years on the BBWAA ballot to get inducted in 2006. Hoyt at 28th isn't extremely far out either. He was inducted in 1969 by a Veterans Committee. His Pitching Value ranks slightly better at 24th. He played more games as a starter, but added more value as a reliever. He probably had some Yankee bias, and was a part of 3 World Series winning teams. I think his case has somewhat of a pioneering aspect to it, as an early closer. He led the leauge in saves in 1928 with 8. He had just 53 saves in his career, but won 237 games. Smith doesn't rank too well at 42nd, but based on Pitching Value he's a much more favorable 17th. His 478 career saves were the most all-time from 1993 until 2006, when Hoffman broke his record. He was a 7 time All-Star and 3 time Reliever of the Year. Despite all that, it still took a Veterans Committee in 2019 to get him inducted. Interestingly, Player Value doesn't think Smith was ever the best reliever at pitching (i.e. Reliever of the Year), or one of the top two relievers overall in his league (i.e. All-Star). Bender actually played from 1903-1925, so we are missing 9 of his seasons. He had 36.9 WAR from 1903-1911, and 11.1 WAR from 1912-1925. Given his 45.09 in Player Value from 1912-1925, we can use the same Player Value/WAR ratio to estimate that he'd have 149.89 in Player Value from 1903-1911. Combing those pieces puts him at 194.98, which would be 2nd all-time. Now it was really just his post 1912 self that was mainly a reliever, so he'd probably be a starter over his whole career, in which case he would rank 34th. Regardless, once we consider his earlier years we see that Bender was clearly deserving of induction. You probably don't think of Jim Bunning as a relief pitcher, as he proportionally was more of a starter. However, he provided more value as a reliever since he had just -6.05 Player Value as a starter. Bunning struck out 2,855 batters in his career and played in 9 All-Star games, though just 7 All-Star seasons. Even then, it took a Veterans Committee in 1966 to get him inducted. Similar to Robin Roberts and Early Wynn, Player Value actually thinks that Bunning was underrated in his prime. It thinks he should have won 2 Cy Youngs, though just appeared in 6 All-Star seasons. Bunning was stellar his first 4 seasons in Philly and in 1960 and 1961 in Detroit, providing 115.7 in value. However, he wasn't overly impressive for the rest of his career, was uncharacteristically bad in 1963 (-23.1 in value), and lost 69.2 in value in his final 4 seasons when he was 36-39 from 1968-1971. Again, we like to look at awards and good seasons for the Hall of Fame, but fail to consider a player's bad seasons. I don't think Bunning should suffer from his old age seasons, but for the other years I think we should consider the full context of his career. Rube Marquard played from 1908-1925, so we are missing 4 of his seasons here. He was inducted by one of the notorious Veterans Committees in 1971. Though him and Frankie Frisch both played for the New York Giants in their careers, they never were on the same team. Marquard ranks very poorly among pitchers in terms of WAR, posting just 32.4 WAR. Bill James has said that he is probably the worst starting pitcher in the Hall of Fame. Like Bunning, he played more as a starter but provided more value as a reliever since he ranks very negatively as a starter. He was basically a solid pitcher from 1911-1913 and then from 1916-1917, but not really elsewhere. He's a pretty egregious Hall of Famer. Jim Kaat was recently inducted by an Era Committee in 2022. He was one of the few guys from that class that I actually supported; his 16 Gold Gloves are the 2nd most by a pitcher in history and 7 more than the next highest pitcher. He was tied with Brooks Robinson for the most Gold Gloves by any player until Greg Maddux broke their record. His 283 wins were also close to the 300 win mark that was previously considered worthy of automatic Hall of Fame induction. With Player Value, I've seen that Gil Hodges, Tony Oliva, and Minnie Minoso were all more worthy of Cooperstown than Jim Kaat. His Gold Gloves were largely anecdotal, like Derek Jeter's. He was really only the best defensive pitcher for 2 seasons. He went to 3 All-Star games, but Player Value thinks that should have been 4. Kaat was streaky as a pitcher in the 1960s and early 1970s. He was great in '74, '62, and '72; he was solid in '61 and from '64-'66; he wasn't all that in '67-'68 and '71 and '73. He was simply bad in '63 and '69-'70. His worst season was in 1977 when he lost 24.3 in Player Value, and the rest of his career after 1974 was generally around the 25th percentile or worse. Like Harold Baines, I supported Kaat's Cooperstown case from a more traditional perspective, but he is undeserving according to Player Value. Jesse Haines was inducted by a Veterans Committee in 1970, and is a true cronyism example as he played with Frankie Frisch from 1927 until the end of both of their careers in 1937. As such, he's another guy that Bill James doesn't think deserves to be in, and I agree. Haines was proportionally more of a starter but provided more value as a reliever since he was negative as a starter. He wasn't bad in 1927 (17.5 value), but he was terrible in 1924 and 1929 (-30.3 and -31.1 in value). He was just a pretty "meh" player for most of his career. So there's a bit on our Hall of Fame exceptions. Bender is easily in if we consider his pre 1912 self, Sutter and Smith are on the top 14 cusp already and fare better if we only consider their Pitching Value, Bunning had an extraordinary peak but just broke down afterwards or had some uncharacteristically bad seasons. Hoyt benefitted from being on World Series winning teams and from being a sort of closer pioneer. Kaat had somewhat of a traditional case that was boosted by poor awards voting and counting stat accumulation. Marquard and Haines are simply egregious inductees. So of our 14 actual Hall of Famers to work with, we can probably say that 6-10 are deserving. I've already mentioned the 3 active or still-on-the-ballot relievers that rank in the top 14 (Wagner, Kimbrel, Jansen) that ought to be inducted. Others in the top 14 that deserve Cooperstown consideration include Kent Tekulve, Dan Quisenberry, Tom Gordon, Eddie Rommel, and Bobby Shantz. Player Value thinks that a total of 16 different relievers had the best Pitching Value in a season in their league and therefore should have won a Cy Young award. In actuality, only 9 relievers have won the award. Jim Bunning is technically the only "reliever" to win 2, but those would have both been in his peak days as a starter. Some other hypothetical Cy Young winners include Rob Dibble in 1990, Rivera in 1996, and Gossage in 1982. Rivera and Gossage lead the way with 4 Reliever of the Year awards. Wilhelm, Eckersley, Jansen, and Radatz are all tied with 3. Firpo Marberry was designated as a starter because that's where he provided the most value despite proportionally pitching more as a reliever. He too should have won 4 Reliever of the Year awards, in addition to deserving to win a Cy Young in 1929 as a starter. Rivera and Wilhelm lead the way with 10 All-Star seasons. Basically all of the relief pitchers in the Hall of Fame were closers; guys that pitch in the 9th inning. I was hoping to see true relief pitchers, like long bullpen guys that take over after poor starts or setup guys that get teams through the 7th and 8th innings, rank higher in Player Value. Surely there had to be at least one relief pitcher that wasn't a closer that deserves to be in the Hall of Fame? Unfortunately, it appears not. Any of my underrated players not in Cooperstown like Tekulve or Quiz were still mainly closers, and others that rank higher like Gordon, Shantz, or Rommel spent a decent portion of their careers as starters. The best reliever that was not a closer of all-time appears to be Mark Eichhorn, who pitched from 1982-1996 (by when closers were common) and recorded just 32 saves. He ranks 21st in Player Value among relievers at 86.26, unfortunately not really enough to support for Cooperstown. Of the 6,098 relief pitchers in my dataset based off of games played, 11 are in the Hall of Fame. That's 0.18%, significantly less than the "top 1%" idea that many people think of the Hall of Fame as, as well as the top 1.18% that the Hall actually operates at. This is by far a lower induction rate than starting pitchers and any defensive position. If we would technically want that 1% or so to hold water across every position, then we'd need to induct about 50 more relievers. By no means do I think there are 50 relief pitchers that deserve to be inducted, though I do think there are a few more that we could put in. The truth of the matter is that relievers are the most replaceable players (thus why there are so many more) and therefore they generally aren't as valuable. Most of the guys that rank around 25th at their position have a Player Value anywhere from 200 to 350. For relievers that number is 78. You could be extreme and say that no relief pitchers, or maybe only Rivera, deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. But being a relief pitcher is a unique and important role for a team; someone has got to go in and shut guys down and any player that does so, well above their peers, deserves recognition as an all-time great. In the end, we need a balance between inducting like the top 1% or so of players at each position (which would see too many relievers in the Hall) and inducting like the top 1% or so of players across all positions (which would see too few relievers in the Hall). Below you can graphically see how all of our relievers compare in terms of Player Value, along with the black line denoting which players provided positive value, the gold line denoting the Hall of Fame mark, and the blue dots denoting the actual Hall of Fame members: You can imagine the surplus of relievers we'd have to induct if we put any red dot above the gold line in, but clearly there are some red dots that stand out enough to deserve induction. Our two non-Hall of Famers at the top with little Pitching Value but lots of Batting/Fielding/Baserunning value are Bobby Shantz and Eddie Rommel. The five non-Hall of Famers to the far left with the worst Pitching Value are Jamey Wright, Pedro Ramos, Ron Kline, Johnny Klippstein, and Terry Mulholland. We see how clearly Mariano Rivera sticks out compared to the rest of the relievers, as the blue dot on the far right. Below you can graphically see how the top 25 relievers compare in terms of Player Value: And since we have so much more relievers than any other position, I'll also graphically show the top 26-50 relievers in terms of Player Value: Below is the dataset of primarily relief pitchers from 1912-2021, as determined by which position the player provided the most Player Value at. There are 6,160 players in this dataset.
Below is the dataset of primarily relief pitchers from 1912-2021, as determined by which position the player played the most games at. There are 6,098 players in this dataset.
Thanks for checking out this reliever rankings post. I plan to update it whenever I develop new Player Value iterations, and hopefully we'll get closer and closer to some rankings that we can more firmly support. I'd say the main takeaways for now should be:
If you'd like to receive email updates for each new post that I make, sign up for the Statting Lineup newsletter using the link below: https://weebly.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ab653f474b2ced9091eb248b1&id=3a60f3b85f The information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet. Interested parties may contact Retrosheet at 20 Sunset Rd., Newark, DE 19711
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