Yeah, that was a cheap shot. No doubt.

Leo Nunez, tied for second in the major leagues in saves, tied for first in the NL, tops in the major leagues among closers with a perfect record in saves.

 

Only Pittsburgh's Hanrahan is perfect and within four saves of him.

 

Nuff said.

yes, his 12-12 is all well and good but how many times are you actually comfortable with him taking the mound in the 9th, especially with only a 1-run lead? I know I'm not.

I don't care whether you're comfortable.

 

At this point, there's really only a handful of closers that have pitched better than him this season. Whether he makes you comfortable or not is irrelevant.

 

With a 1-run lead, no pitcher should make you comfortable. Because every pitcher in baseball (except Mo) is going to have a WHIP of 1 or higher, which means on average, he's going to put the tying run on base every inning.

 

I don't get why people don't understand this. It's a really easy concept.

 

And Leo should've had a 1-2-3 inning last night. John Buck dropped strike 3 and the ump refused to call it a strike because of the drop.

Leo's WHIP so far this year is basically identical to the WHIP's that Brian Wilson, Carlos Marmol, and Heath Bell had last year; those are three guys who are considered to be very good closers.

 

His last five years...

2007: 1.24 WHIP

2008: 1.24 WHIP

2009: 1.25 WHIP

2010: 1.28 WHIP

2011: 1.19 WHIP

 

It's not really a dominating #, but his problem isn't really the # of baserunners he allows.

 

That's fine, especially considering his K/9 and K/BB ratio since he's been here.

 

His problem has been the # of HR's he allows. I also think that his problem is rather mental because it seems like when he blows a save, it leads to a prolonged struggle (as it did last August).

 

He was rather dominant last year until he hit a wall in the 2nd half. His peripherals last year were actually rather awesome. If he can do what he did last year (2.8ish FIP, xFIP, and tERA), I think he'll be fine, especially since our defense has improved.

 

The defense is important, and often times overlooked. Everyone tends to look back and blame the pitcher when runs are scored, but even last year...I recall a couple of blown saves that occurred, in large part, because of shaky defense.

Also, it helps that our middle relief is better this year.

 

There have been games this year when Leo has allowed a run or two, and has still been able to get the "save." Last year, that had a better chance of being a blown save because our middle relief likely would've already allowed a run before Leo came in, thus giving Leo less of a cushion in certain games.

 

This is why saves/blown saves are overrated in terms of evaluating an individual pitcher, despite the fact that it's an important stat for the team.

People are really underrating how awesome our outfield defense has been this year, and how big an effect that's had on our pitching.

1 run leads are tenous, especially against part of the order than can instantly generate 1 run on their own. I can tell you that NYY fans aren't "comfortable" with them even 5 years ago with Mariano up there.

I prefer not to go looking for problems when the Marlins have enough to contend with already.