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Categorizing Pitchers (Part Two): Relievers – 2007 Edition

After categorizing starting pitchers by strikeout and groundball rates yesterday, I wanted to devote today’s article to relievers.

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The graph below includes strikeout and groundball data for every reliever in the majors (defined for this exercise as those with 30 or more innings who started less than one-third of the time). The x-axis is strikeouts per batter faced (K/BF) and the y-axis is groundball percentage (GB%). The intersection equals the average K/BF of 18.99% and the average GB% of 43.34%. By comparison, starters had a mean K/BF rates of 16.33% and GB% of 43.88%, respectively. While the groundball rates were virtually the same, the average strikeout rate among relievers was 2.66 percentage points higher or 16.3%.

Graph courtesy of David Appelman, FanGraphs.

As with the starters, it is always fun to look at the outliers. Starting at the upper end of the graph, Cla Meredith had the highest percentage of groundballs among all pitchers. The submariner was actually a member of the northeast quadrant last year but his strikeout rate dipped a bit from 20.00% in 2006 to 17.25% in 2007 while his groundball rate inched up from 68.84% to 71.98%. Moving clockwise, the other outliers consist of Joe Smith, Heath Bell, Jonathan Broxton, Takashi Saito, Francisco Cordero, Jonathan Papelbon, George Sherrill, Al Reyes, Mark McLemore, Jonah Bayliss, Jay Witasick, Steve Kline, Chad Bradford, and LaTroy Hawkins.

Let’s drill down and take a closer look at each of the quadrants. The NE, SE, and SW quadrants are listed by K/BF, while the pitchers in the NW quadrant are in order of GB%.

NORTHEAST QUADRANT (ABOVE-AVG K AND GB RATES)

pitcher k/bf gb% takashi saito 33.33% 45.99% jonathan broxton 29.64% 48.79% derrick turnbow 28.77% 46.54% brett myers 28.33% 45.76% heath bell 28.10% 58.82% rafael perez 26.27% 52.56% mike wuertz 25.32% 43.98% mariano rivera 25.08% 53.00% chris ray 24.58% 44.74% jason frasor 24.38% 45.45% fernando rodney 24.22% 45.32% scot shields 24.06% 44.61% scott downs 23.85% 59.87% tyler yates 23.47% 46.49% john bale 23.46% 43.36% manny delcarmen 23.30% 44.64% hideki okajima 23.16% 44.57% chad qualls 22.61% 56.65% bobby jenks 22.49% 53.76% pedro feliciano 22.18% 55.75% c.j. wilson 22.11% 49.17% matt thornton 22.09% 46.99% joe smith 21.95% 62.31% matt lindstrom 21.83% 47.42% jeremy accardo 20.73% 49.21% jared burton 20.45% 45.22% jon coutlangus 20.32% 47.79% angel guzman 20.31% 44.94% jason isringhausen 20.22% 44.51% jorge julio 20.00% 51.60% ron mahay 19.57% 48.91% ryan dempster 19.50% 47.12% salomon torres 19.48% 47.83% matt guerrier 19.37% 47.45% kevin cameron 19.01% 48.54%

Saito and Broxton are 1-2, forming perhaps the top bullpen tandem in the majors. Over the past two seasons, these two righthanders have struck out nearly one-third of all batters faced. If the Dodgers starters can pitch seven innings, Saito

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