Who was similar to Dennis Eckersley?

by adarowski on Jul 28, 2010 3:00 PM EDT

You've probably figured out by now that one of my favorite sabermetric research topics involves trying to figure out the value of relief pitchers. Every time I write a post or make any kind of list, I always end up casting Dennis Eckersley aside. He's just so different compared with other Hall of Fame relievers. He was inducted because of his work as a reliever, though he provided a lot more value (by WAR) as a starter. Neither one of his "careers" is truly Hall-worthy by itself, but if you combine them, you've got yourself a Hall of Famer.

So, now I'm wondering… who exactly was like Dennis Eckersley? Anybody?

I built a list of pitchers below who started between 20% and 50% of their career games, pitched in over 2000 innings, and accumulated at least 25 WAR. It's not a terribly long list:

Name	Innings	Games	Starts	WAR	WAR/200 IP	GS%	ERA+	W	SV
Dennis Eckersley	3285.6	1071	361	58.7	3.57	0.34	116	197	390
Wilbur Wood	2684.0	651	297	45.0	3.35	0.46	114	164	57
Eddie Rommel	2556.4	500	249	42.1	3.29	0.50	122	171	29
Tom Gordon	2108.2	890	203	34.4	3.26	0.23	113	138	158
Firpo Marberry	2067.2	551	187	29.4	2.84	0.34	117	148	101
Ken Forsch	2127.1	521	241	27.8	2.61	0.46	106	114	51
Greg Swindell	2233.4	664	269	27.4	2.45	0.41	107	123	7
Ron Reed	2477.6	751	236	27.3	2.20	0.31	108	146	103
Syl Johnson	2165.8	542	210	26.3	2.43	0.39	104	112	43

Eckersley leads the way in games, innings, starts, WAR, WAR/200 IP, wins, and saves. He is bested in ERA+ by Eddie Rommel and barely by Firpo Marberry.

In trying to figure out who Eck was "like", I tried to find guys who not only started and relieved, but spent time closing. While Ron Reed and Marberry each had over 100 saves, Tom Gordon stands out to me here. Like others on this list, they both also had a pretty clear break in their careers—first a starter, then a reliever. In fact, the biggest difference between Eckersley and Gordon, to me, is their total playing time. Let's project Gordon's career out to Eck's innings, just for fun:

Name	Innings	Games	Starts	WAR	WAR/200 IP	GS%	ERA+	W	SV
Dennis Eckersley	3285.6	1071	361	58.7	3.57	0.34	116	197	390
Tom Gordon	2108.2	890	203	34.4	3.26	0.23	113	138	158
Tom Gordon (proj)	3285.6	1387	316	53.6	3.26	0.23	113	215	246

Suddenly things look a lot more similar. Of course, Gordon didn't pitch those 1000 or so innings, so it we can't say he was close to Eckersley. But projecting him does show how similar their usage was throughout their careers.

Gordon and Eckersley were two of just five players in history to win and save 125 games. The others are John Smoltz (not on this list because he started too much), Hoyt Wilhelm and Lindy McDaniel (both not on this list because they relieved too much, though McDaniel also misses the 25 WAR cutoff).

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Comments

Fantastic Article!

Wonderful article! As a fellow sabermetrically-inclined blogger, I was surprised not only by how thoughtful your article was, but also how easy it was to read. The article itself reminded me of a process invented by Bill James in his FANTASTIC book The Politics of Glory; which he named Similarity Scores. His process, which was created to help voters decide whether a certain player belongs in the Hall Of Fame, is comprehensive, and not unlike what you have done in your article.
—Si
http://nobiassportscenter.blogspot.com/

by Si Squires-Kasten on Jul 28, 2010 3:27 PM EDT reply actions