Post#7 » by Skin Blues » Mon Jul 25, 2011 9:54 pm
Blown Saves is a horrible way to judge a bullpen. What if they have a large proportion of 1-run games? What if a lot of those blown saves occurred in the 7th or 8th innings, and weren't actually blown saves, but blown holds? What if they also lead the league in save opportunities? When you're dealing with numbers that are that volatile, misrepresentative, and in such small sample size, it's pretty pointless to come to conclusions from looking at it. I'm not saying the Jays bullpen has been admirable, because they've done a good job of keeping my blood-pressure up where Kevin Gregg left it last season. But lets at least try to take a meaningful look at the underlying numbers.
EDIT: A quick look shows that the bullpen is 3rd in the league in K/BB, and also 3rd in xFIP (expected ERA, based on underlying factors). So... pretty good. And I know the term "unlucky" bothers a lot of people, but really, that's what it boils down to. In high leverage situations, they have by far the highest bullpen K/BB (3.33) but also are dead last in LOB% (it's ridiculous, really) and the second-worst HR/FB. So don't fret too much... they're good.