But that was a different era, when relievers were really more like backups -- the second string -- than they were a part of everyday baseball strategy. Since the relief era really took off in the late s, relievers have always pitched considerably better than starters, not because they've been better pitchers but because they've been quality pitchers used in shorter stints and, usually, with the platoon advantage generally in their favor.
In other words: Starters are better, but relievers have the easier job. If this holds, it would be the first time since that relievers have allowed a higher ERA than starters did, or as high of an OPS.
Indeed, from through , there was only one season when relievers' ERA wasn't at least 5 percent lower than starters'. This year, relievers' ERA is 3 percent higher than starters. The gap between starters and relievers is smallest in April and September , but smallest doesn't mean small.
The gap grows -- to about 8 percent -- in May through August, but even early in the season it is a real aberration to have starters outpitching relievers. That said, weird things do happen in short stretches, and a reversal like this for a month isn't unprecedented. Starters outpitched relievers in April , before things went back to normal the rest of the season. Also in and in Home runs and strikeouts? Not exactly, but sort of. The crucial detail here, if this reversal turns out to be real and persistent, is relievers are throwing more innings than they ever have before, which dilutes the collective reliever pool.
There have been 4. There were pitchers who appeared in relief during teams' first 12 games this season. There were in the first dozen games of -- and it's safe to say those extra 24 are dragging down, not lifting up, the collective reliever stats. There were relievers in the first 12 days of Dozens of pitchers have thrown relief innings this year who would probably have been in the minors most any other year.
Furthermore, we can't really say relievers are worse except in relation to starters, and starters have been the statistical beneficiaries of modern pitcher usage. Fewer and fewer starters are asked to face batters a third time in the game, to throw a pitch while exhausted, or to pace themselves to get through eight or nine innings.
Each season, starters are able to pitch more like relievers -- at full tilt, basically. A big reason teams prefer to use their starters this way -- five innings and then out -- is they like their starters to pitch for strikeouts, and they don't like having tired starters in the game giving up home runs.
It's probably not all the way real. There hasn't been a substantial increase in relief innings since last season, or in relievers used since last season, so it's hard to explain why there'd be such a substantial change in results since last season. The best bet is relievers will settle in to a level much like last year, when they allowed 3 percent fewer earned runs than starters.
But that was a big change, an anomalous season matched only once in the previous 40 years. But now? Consider Washington's Trea Turner , one of the fastest players in baseball and someone who seems to have the makeup of a triples machine. He has 10 triples in his first career games, but he admits that he advances with extreme caution.
So I try to just make sure I'm safe. That's why I always keep my eyes up, and if I don't think I can get it, it's no big deal, because I feel like I can score anyway.
Pete Rose couldn't really run, but he hit career triples because he just kept going. Roberto Clemente hit an astonishing career triples, the most since integration, because he just would not stop. He hit three triples in a game in , one of 30 Major League players to achieve the feat. What I love most about that fact, though, is that Clemente was out on one of those triples -- he tried for an inside-the-park home run, was barely tagged out and settled for the triple in the box score.
Blackmon's triple barrage early this year shows another reason triples are down -- modern ballparks, for the most part, aren't built for triples. In the s, Kansas City's Royals Stadium was a triples paradise, with its huge outfield and springy AstroTurf that made hits bounce absurdly high, or skip like rocks on the water. From the early '70s to the late '80s, the triple was hot, and the teams that tended to hit the most triples -- Kansas City, Houston, St.
All eight of Blackmon's triples this year have been at Coors Field. Everyone said, 'Oh, what happened to your triples? And the balls that go to right-center at Comerica now go out of the ballpark at Yankee Stadium.
Since coming to the Mets in , he has only once managed to have more than two triples in a season. Stan Musial. Johnny Barrett. Luis Olmo. Harry Walker.
Richie Ashburn. Minnie Minoso. Gus Bell. Bobby Thomson. Jim Gilliam. Willie Mays. Dale Long. Jackie Jensen. Bill Bruton. Harry Simpson. Wally Moon. Charlie Neal. George Altman. Johnny Callison. Willie Davis. Bill Virdon. Maury Wills. Vada Pinson. Dick Allen. Tim McCarver. Lou Brock. Roberto Clemente. Freddie Patek. Roger Metzger. Joe Morgan.
Larry Bowa. Mickey Rivers. Ralph Garr. Dave Cash. Garry Templeton. Omar Moreno. Rodney Scott. Craig Reynolds. Gene Richards. Dickie Thon. Brett Butler. Juan Samuel. Ryne Sandberg. Willie McGee. Hi Myers BRO. Bill Hinchman PIT. Tom Long STL. Les Mann CHI. Mike Mitchell CIN. Jimmy Williams BLA. Jimmy Williams PIT. Harry Davis PIT. Kip Selbach WHS.
Perry Werden STL. Harry Stovey BSN. John Reilly CIN. Perry Werden TOL. Walt Wilmot WHS. Dick Johnston BSN. Harry Stovey PHA. Dave Orr NYP. Pop Smith COL. Harry Stovey WOR. Ross Barnes CHC. Ross Barnes BOS. Charlie Gould BOS. John Bass?
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