Congrats, Goose.

Creator of Save Stat, Dead at 82

Jerome Holtzman, a member of the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and a man who helped make relief pitchers more relevant, statistically speaking, died this past weekend.  While this is obviously sad news here at the Loogy Lounge, I couldn’t help but be amused by a comment posted by a gentleman named Hugo on the Times’ website:

I don’t mean this in a bad way, but I wish that save stat died with him.

Harsh, Hugo, but you kinda have a point.

We’re back! What a relief. Get it? Relief. Like, relief pitching.

Gnopple, you’ve inspired me to pick up the good fight for middle-relief recognition again.  When Joey Devine went down with an injury in late May, a piece of me did die, but with his imminent return, I feel ready to blog again.  For now, I provide a link that I meant to post awhile back.  The Hardball Times conducted a study and produced an interesting piece on whether relief pitchers suffer from pitching on back-to-back days.  A snippet:

While this study appears to generally conform to common knowledge, it still is nice to look at. While pitchers appear to lose a little on their fastball, their sinkers appear to have more bite while their sliders remain relatively unchanged.

We’re Not Dead; Neither is Radinsky

Hey devoted reader(s),

Sorry for the drop-off. We’ll be back (sans vengeance…don’t worry), soon. 

In the meantime, check out this sweet, long, heavily-illustrated, and entertaining interview with ROCKER/(former) RELIEF PITCHER, Scott Radinsky.  There’s a life after LOOGY after all…