Comments on: The Case Against The Save https://thepointofpittsburgh.com/the-case-against-the-save/ Ideas Involving Pittsburgh Thu, 14 Feb 2019 13:19:51 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.3 By: Alex Stumpf https://thepointofpittsburgh.com/the-case-against-the-save/#comment-11587 Wed, 07 Sep 2016 14:07:38 +0000 https://thepointofpittsburgh.com/?p=5901#comment-11587 While I agree that Melancon is doing better than Watson this year, that’s only part of the argument. For example, I believe that the six outs that Rivero gave Tuesday were more valuable than the three Melancon would have given in that scenario. Watson probably would have blown the lead in the 8th too if he was back in his old role, meaning it never would have got to Melancon.

I stand by saying that managers are trying to pad their closer’s save stat and it’s making the figure less valuable. In my opinion, your argument of pointing out FIP and WAR are better indicators of how a back end reliever is doing than comparing his save total to the league leaders.

I do believe a win is a win and 3 outs are 3 outs. After all, people are complaining about the Pirates’ struggled against the Brewers just as much as against the Cubs. Obviously there is a psychological angle for some wins and some save situations, making some games and situations more important than others. I’m not even making the “anyone can close” argument. What I’m saying is that Rivero has been just about as effective as Melancon and fans shouldn’t give up on Watson because he’s struggling to adjust to a new role midseason.

]]> By: Joe Schmo https://thepointofpittsburgh.com/the-case-against-the-save/#comment-11534 Tue, 06 Sep 2016 14:48:21 +0000 https://thepointofpittsburgh.com/?p=5901#comment-11534 By your own argument, if we ignore the save metric and look only at ERA (2.64 > 1.57), FIP (4.00 > 2.42), WAR (1.3 < 2.2), etc, Melancon is unarguably better than Watson.

While I may agree with you that counting stats like saves maybe over-rated, you can't call for fans to ignore such stats in favor of others because it is convenient to a point you choose to make if ALL of the stats support the point you are arguing against.

Furthermore, you are ignoring the fact that while all outs, and therefor, by extension, all wins are equally important on paper, psychologically, battling to a lead against one of the toughest opponents at the beginning of the playoff push only to see that lead blown and that win evaporate can be soul crushing to a ball club and to the individual players. A fact further evidenced by the ongoing 7 game losing streak brought on, at least in part, by that blown save.

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