In researching data for our upcoming new reliever stat (to replace Saves), we came across some interesting, if not entirely surprising, figures that reveal how relief pitchers have been used over the years. The following chart shows the average number of batters faced per game for relief pitchers since 1954 (data points are at five-year intervals).

As you can see (and probably already knew on an intuitive level), major-league relief pitchers have seen fewer and fewer batters per appearance. The number has fallen quite a bit, down from 8.31 in 1954 to 4.66 in 2009 so far. You can see the steepest decline beginning around 1979, the year Tony “Loogy” La Russa broke in as manager.

This entry was posted by Pip on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 2:33 pm and is filed under analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.