Bullpenternet: His Heart Is In The Right Place…

A fellow blogger, over at ArmChairGM, posted a story about how middle relievers kind of get the shaft in fame, power, adulation, and big contracts. But see Scott Linebrink. Kind of sounds like the thing that The Loogy Lounge would be all about right? Well, John Stevens is probably still breathing hard somewhere in the 50’s on the West Side of Manhattan because the fellow blogger ponders:

“Why is the closer’s role more important in baseball than then the middle reliever/set-up man? Why is the save a more prominent statistical category than a Hold?”

And the truth of the matter is, John Stevens has already answered this. It’s not. They’re equally asinine. You should be as unimpressed with a guy who enters with a three run lead and gives up two runs whether it’s the seventh inning or the ninth. They’re both terrible outings.

As I end this article, I wonder why Holds is even counted as a category? Is this just another Bill James way of tracking player information?

We don’t know either, guy. But it’s kind of a fun to make up new shit. And no, Bill James had nothing to do with it. John Dewan and Mike O’Donnell got plastered one night at Sully’s and decided that Calvin Schiraldi was getting NO respekts….and they did something about it.

Is Holds going to someday be as important as Saves?

Yes. The hold became as important as the save on the day it was invented in 1986.

I question all of these things because I feel every ballplayer on the teams 40 man roster deserves respect. Therefore I salute all of the George Sherrill’s of the world. It doesn’t matter what inning they pitch in, just as long as they do their job.

And, guy, we salute you. May the middle reliever get the same massive overpriced contracts as each of his fellow overhyped teammates.

Sox lose Holdzkom in Rule 5 Draft

The Sox lost a big name at the winter meetings — no, not Buchholz, Ellsbury, Crisp, Lowrie, or Masterson.  The Phillies plucked Lincoln Holdzkom from the Red Sox in the 2007 Rule 5 Draft.  With a name like Holdzkom, you just know the guy is going to pick up the pieces when J.C. Romero’s $12M contract fails to deliver. 

In fact, with John Stevens’s permission, I propose that we refer to the hold stat as “a Holdzkom” from now on.

Low-Budget Team Gives Lots of Money to 34-Year-Old With Zero Major League Experience

Apologies for neglecting to post on the Royals’ signing of Japanese reliever, Yasuhiko Yabuta. Despite my snide title above, this move does make some sense from a business standpoint. Japan has become a crucial source of talent for MLB clubs, and perhaps the signing of Yabuta will make other Japanese players — like sought-after starter Hiroki Kuroda — more comfortable going to play in Kansas City.

In this light, the move is reminiscent of Hideki Okajima’s signing with the Red Sox last off-season. After the signing, and before the Sox signed Dice-K, Theo Epstein said: “He’s going be a valuable member of our bullpen. But, if we do end up with two Japanese pitchers, that certainly would help the assimilation process, not only on the field but also off the field.”

Because I feel nothing but pity for Royals’ fans, I truly hope this signing works out as well as Okajima’s signing did for the Red Sox. The best thing Yabuta has going for him, as was the case for Jeemer, is that Major League hitters have never seen him before. Not anywhere close to the best thing going for him is that he “register[ed] 86 holds over the last three seasons for the Chibe Lotte Marines in the Pacific League.”

I Hate The Hold.

I’m going to ridicule the “hold” statistic in FireJoeMorgan fashion. Here goes! According to Major League Baseball:

The hold is not an official statistic, but it was created as a way to credit middle relief pitchers for a job well done.

So the hold unofficially gives credit to middle-relief pitchers? I’m not really sure what that means. I guess MLB also thinks it’s a pretty dumb stat?

Starting pitchers get wins, and closers — the relief pitchers who come in at the end of the game — get saves, but the guys who pitch in between the two rarely get either statistic.

This is really thoughtful of MLB. Wins are a stupid way to measure starting-pitcher performance and saves are a stupid way to measure closer performance, so let’s find a stupid way to measure middle-relief performance. And let’s not stop there — let’s make the hold even stupider than the win and save.

So what’s the most important thing one of these middle relievers can do? “Hold” a lead.

Sounds right. Seems innocent enough. But here’s where things get really stupid…

If a reliever comes into a game to protect a lead, gets at least one out and leaves without giving up that lead, he gets a hold.

Here’s the scene: World Series. Bottom of the 8th inning. Road team up 5-2. Six outs away from winning it all. Its best middle reliever comes in. He gets an out, but then surrenders a single and a homerun. 5-4. But heck, he shouldn’t feel bad about himself — his team still has the lead. Let’s unofficially give him credit for his performance. Good job, Jeemer!

By the way, it appears that some stat services define the hold differently. (I guess people feel they can use artistic discretion with the hold because MLB made the stat “unofficial”). According to these folks, a reliever doesn’t even need to record an out to get a hold. Way to go, Mike MacDougal! And thank you Yahoo! for making the hold even worse than it already was.

But you can’t get a save and a hold at the same time.

That makes sense, I guess. You know what doesn’t make sense? Amazingly, you can get a hold and a loss at the same time! Check this out. That is just plain stupid.