Middle Relievers

This is a Reprint from an Article by Tommy Leavitt on March 25,2010.
Tommy Leavitt can be reached by reading his Blog at http://baseball1967.blogspot.com/ or at ondeck99@hotmail.com

Thursday, March 25, 2010
HOW DO YOU SPELL MIDDLE RELIEF
When you think of a middle relief pitcher in Baseball ,no jumping for joy happens, A Pitcher does not start out their career thinking I want to be a middle reliever , a mop up man , or a setup man .
What exactly do you have when you get a good middle reliever.You end up with a key ingredient in the chemistry of a team. Often this position gets so overlooked that it really can be the key to a
team success or failure.

What pitcher on your favorite mlb team gives you quality innings;selflessly and does so in age old work ethic fashion.
Most people that are casual fans do not think about this at all. If you have a team that is going to win 90-100 baseball games ,that same team is going to lose 60-70 games .
Given the fact that some of those wins are going to come from behind ,if the team is good ,say 8 wins a season from behind;then say in the losses the score was like 7-0
in the third inning when the middle reliever shows up; what do these facts mean about the middle reliever.

Its pretty logical that straight up if your dealing with 16-20 games that could make or break your season then if your middle reliever gives you an average of 4 innings per
outing over those 20 outings;and another 50 or 60 innings over the course of the season then a good middle reliever is giving you 130-150 innings in a season .
This is equivalent to 15-17 starts per season,if the starting pitcher went 9 innings. Now if you look at a season when the first pitch is thrown you have 162 games and
9 innings per game which equals 1458 innings on average excluding the extra inning games and rain shortened games. If you have 5 starters and they give you an average
of 7 innings per start with about 30 starts each , your talking 1050 innings, in reality its probably closer to 6 2/3 innings per start.That takes away 50 innings from your starters.
Your setup man may give you 60 innings each ;and your closer 40 innings.If you add it all up the starters are giving you 1000 innings, the setup guys 60 innings each righthander
and lefthander. So 1000 plus 60 and 60 and 140 from you middle reliever ; plus 40 from your closer equals 1300 innings of quality pitching on a successful team wth 90-100 wins.

As the math becomes a reality to most managers the bottom line is that you will still be shy 158 innings. Those become the innings of prayer as I call them and the bottom line is that
158 innings is about 17-18 games. Now you know why a middle reliever is important. The middle reliever also preserves the staff ; he gobbles up innings that give no glory, and
sometimes the team comes back; and he gets the win! Most of all the middle reliever with a good outing helps the team momentum. Baseball is a game of momentum.
The middle reliever preserves opportunity for the team. Look up any championship team and I guarantee you that you will find a great middle reliever.