FanPost

Wade Davis vs. The World

Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

So as some of you saw earlier, I posted a comparison of 2014 Wade Davis vs. a composite of Mariano Rivera's best stats he had ever compiled in his career, in seasons in which he was used like Wade was used last year (so 15 of Mo's 19 career years) and what I found was that Wade's numbers compared very favorably to Mo's in every standard pitching category besides walks. You can read the full analysis here:

2014 Wade Davis vs. Mariano Rivera's career bests

But what really intrigued me was when several posters brought up Gagne and Eckersley. So I decided to take it a step further and look at the greatest relief seasons of all time. So, what constitutes a great relief season? Good question, me. Hits per 9 innings? ERA+? FIP? K/BB? It's all opinion, obviously. I'm pretty partial to FIP, myself, so I decided to take all relief seasons since 1901, where the reliever had a FIP below 2.00 and pitched more than 50 innings. There are other methods to this madness that you can try, but the point is to show how nasty Wade was in 2014, and I think all methods will lead to the same conclusion. To the Excel machine!! First, the raw data. There were 56 such seasons.

Rk Player Year Age Tm Lg W L SV H R ER BB ERA ERA+ FIP IP HR SO BF AB 2B 3B IBB HBP SH SF GDP SB CS PO BK WP BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ Pit Str
1 Craig Kimbrel 2012 24 ATL NL 3 1 42 27 7 7 14 1.01 399 0.78 62.2 3 116 231 215 1 0 0 2 0 0 3 8 1 0 0 5 0.126 0.186 0.172 0.358 1 936 661
2 Eric Gagne 2003 27 LAD NL 2 3 55 37 12 11 20 1.20 337 0.86 82.1 2 137 306 279 6 0 2 3 4 0 0 2 1 0 0 2 0.133 0.199 0.176 0.374 4 1187 824
3 Aroldis Chapman 2014 26 CIN NL 0 3 36 21 12 12 24 2.00 181 0.89 54.0 1 106 202 174 6 0 0 2 1 1 2 6 4 0 0 4 0.121 0.234 0.172 0.406 21 935 596
4 Wade Davis 2014 28 KCR AL 9 2 3 38 8 8 23 1.00 399 1.19 72.0 0 109 279 252 3 2 0 3 0 1 3 4 1 0 0 1 0.151 0.229 0.179 0.408 16 1210 787
5 Dennis Eckersley 1990 35 OAK AL 4 2 48 41 9 5 4 0.61 603 1.34 73.1 2 73 262 257 9 1 1 0 0 1 3 1 2 0 0 0 0.160 0.172 0.226 0.397 13
6 Greg Holland 2013 27 KCR AL 2 1 47 40 11 9 18 1.21 342 1.36 67.0 3 103 255 235 6 2 1 0 1 1 4 3 0 0 0 2 0.170 0.228 0.251 0.479 31 1063 693
7 Rob Dibble 1990 26 CIN NL 8 3 11 62 22 19 34 1.74 229 1.50 98.0 3 136 384 339 13 1 3 1 4 6 8 20 3 0 1 3 0.183 0.255 0.254 0.509 42
8 Andrew Miller 2014 29 TOT AL 5 5 1 33 16 14 17 2.02 193 1.51 62.1 3 103 242 216 7 0 2 5 2 2 2 2 1 0 0 3 0.153 0.229 0.227 0.456 29 993 644
9 Craig Kimbrel 2011 23 ATL NL 4 3 46 48 19 18 32 2.10 182 1.52 77.0 3 127 306 270 4 1 1 1 1 2 4 1 3 1 0 4 0.178 0.266 0.233 0.499 42 1314 843
10 Jonathan Papelbon 2011 30 BOS AL 4 1 31 50 22 21 10 2.94 147 1.53 64.1 3 87 255 241 11 1 1 3 0 1 0 6 0 0 0 1 0.207 0.247 0.299 0.546 47 1001 706
11 Dave Smith 1987 32 HOU NL 2 3 24 39 13 11 21 1.65 239 1.54 60.0 0 73 240 214 6 2 8 1 3 1 2 8 0 0 2 2 0.182 0.257 0.229 0.486 36
12 John Smoltz 2003 36 ATL NL 0 2 45 48 9 8 8 1.12 385 1.54 64.1 2 73 244 235 12 0 1 0 0 1 6 1 1 0 0 2 0.204 0.230 0.281 0.510 36 893 648
13 Rob Dibble 1991 27 CIN NL 3 5 31 67 32 29 25 3.17 122 1.54 82.1 5 124 334 301 9 3 2 0 5 3 1 16 5 0 0 5 0.223 0.280 0.322 0.602 71
14 Aroldis Chapman 2012 24 CIN NL 5 5 38 35 13 12 23 1.51 274 1.55 71.2 4 122 276 248 7 1 0 4 0 1 2 5 1 0 0 4 0.141 0.225 0.226 0.450 25 1203 769
15 Koji Uehara 2013 38 BOS AL 4 1 21 33 10 9 9 1.09 379 1.61 74.1 5 101 265 253 10 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 0.130 0.163 0.237 0.400 8 1049 775
16 Bruce Sutter 1977 24 CHC NL 7 3 31 69 21 16 23 1.34 328 1.61 107.1 5 129 411 377 14 2 7 1 9 1 5 7 4 0 0 7 0.183 0.231 0.271 0.502 31
17 Rob Dibble 1992 28 CIN NL 3 5 25 48 26 24 31 3.07 120 1.62 70.1 3 110 286 249 5 2 2 2 2 2 3 8 2 1 0 6 0.193 0.285 0.265 0.550 59
18 Mark Melancon 2013 28 PIT NL 3 2 16 60 15 11 8 1.39 256 1.64 71.0 1 70 279 269 6 1 0 1 0 1 9 3 0 0 0 6 0.223 0.247 0.264 0.511 50 988 689
19 Francisco Rodriguez 2004 22 ANA AL 4 1 12 51 21 17 33 1.82 245 1.64 84.0 2 123 335 297 10 0 1 1 2 1 4 4 2 0 0 5 0.172 0.256 0.226 0.482 29 1355 843
20 Dellin Betances 2014 26 NYY AL 5 0 1 46 15 14 24 1.40 277 1.64 90.0 4 135 341 308 9 1 1 4 2 3 1 12 3 1 1 2 0.149 0.218 0.224 0.442 26 1365 891
21 Billy Wagner 1999 27 HOU NL 4 1 39 35 14 13 23 1.57 287 1.65 74.2 5 124 286 259 5 0 1 1 2 1 0 6 0 0 0 2 0.135 0.208 0.212 0.420 10
22 Joe Nathan 2006 31 MIN AL 7 0 36 38 12 12 16 1.58 284 1.68 68.1 3 95 262 240 7 2 4 1 3 2 1 2 0 0 0 3 0.158 0.212 0.242 0.454 18 1072 703
23 Sean Doolittle 2014 27 OAK AL 2 4 22 38 19 19 8 2.73 137 1.71 62.2 5 89 236 225 6 0 1 0 2 1 0 6 1 0 0 0 0.169 0.197 0.262 0.459 30 928 681
24 Rob Dibble 1989 25 CIN NL 10 5 2 62 23 23 39 2.09 173 1.71 99.0 4 141 401 352 14 0 11 3 3 4 3 18 2 0 0 7 0.176 0.261 0.250 0.511 49
25 Dennis Eckersley 1992 37 OAK AL 7 1 51 62 17 17 11 1.91 195 1.72 80.0 5 93 309 294 11 1 6 1 3 0 3 9 1 0 0 0 0.211 0.242 0.306 0.548 57
26 Jake McGee 2014 27 TBR AL 5 2 19 48 15 15 16 1.89 197 1.73 71.1 2 90 274 254 8 0 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 0 1 0.189 0.242 0.244 0.486 41 1151 764
27 Terry Forster 1972 20 CHW AL 6 5 29 75 31 25 44 2.25 141 1.73 100.0 0 104 419 360 7 5 3 3 7 5 7 3 3 0 0 5 0.208 0.296 0.256 0.552 68
28 J.J. Putz 2006 29 SEA AL 4 1 36 59 20 20 13 2.30 194 1.73 78.1 4 104 303 285 8 1 1 2 1 2 5 7 0 0 0 1 0.207 0.245 0.284 0.529 39 1215 825
29 Kenley Jansen 2011 23 LAD NL 2 1 5 30 17 17 26 2.85 130 1.74 53.2 3 96 218 189 4 0 0 2 0 1 0 7 0 0 2 0 0.159 0.266 0.228 0.494 44 982 630
30 Duane Ward 1991 27 TOR AL 7 6 23 80 36 33 33 2.77 153 1.74 107.1 3 132 428 386 10 1 3 2 3 4 7 7 4 0 0 6 0.207 0.271 0.262 0.532 46
31 Eric Gagne 2002 26 LAD NL 4 1 52 55 18 18 16 1.97 193 1.80 82.1 6 114 314 291 11 2 4 2 3 2 4 2 3 0 0 1 0.189 0.235 0.302 0.537 49 1241 866
32 Tom Henke 1989 31 TOR AL 8 3 20 66 20 19 25 1.92 191 1.80 89.0 5 116 356 322 16 2 4 2 4 3 3 7 3 0 0 2 0.205 0.264 0.314 0.578 66
33 Hung-Chih Kuo 2010 28 LAD NL 3 2 12 29 8 8 18 1.20 324 1.81 60.0 1 73 229 208 6 1 0 1 1 1 1 2 0 0 1 3 0.139 0.211 0.192 0.403 15 941 626
34 Jake McGee 2012 25 TBR AL 5 2 0 33 13 12 11 1.95 198 1.81 55.1 3 73 212 197 3 1 4 1 0 2 3 0 0 0 0 3 0.168 0.213 0.239 0.452 27 920 627
35 Greg Holland 2014 28 KCR AL 1 3 46 37 13 10 20 1.44 277 1.83 62.1 3 90 240 218 5 0 0 0 1 1 2 3 2 0 0 9 0.170 0.238 0.234 0.472 32 1002 640
36 Craig Kimbrel 2014 26 ATL NL 0 3 47 30 13 11 26 1.61 227 1.83 61.2 2 95 244 212 4 0 0 2 3 0 3 5 1 0 0 6 0.142 0.242 0.189 0.430 26 1048 680
37 David Robertson 2011 26 NYY AL 4 0 1 40 9 8 35 1.08 399 1.84 66.2 1 100 272 235 8 1 6 1 1 0 2 16 2 0 1 6 0.170 0.280 0.226 0.506 38 1213 768
38 Doug Jones 1988 31 CLE AL 3 4 37 69 26 21 16 2.27 181 1.85 83.1 1 72 338 317 7 3 3 2 3 0 6 0 1 0 3 2 0.218 0.260 0.268 0.528 47
39 John Wetteland 1993 26 MON NL 9 3 43 58 17 13 28 1.37 305 1.85 85.1 3 113 344 308 10 4 3 2 5 1 0 13 2 0 0 7 0.188 0.260 0.276 0.536 45
40 Sean Marshall 2011 28 CHC NL 6 6 5 66 21 19 17 2.26 173 1.86 75.2 1 79 307 282 11 0 4 2 6 0 5 9 2 1 1 0 0.234 0.282 0.284 0.566 59 1188 794
41 Danny Farquhar 2013 26 SEA AL 0 3 16 44 29 26 22 4.20 88 1.86 55.2 2 79 228 203 6 2 4 0 1 2 5 3 1 0 1 2 0.217 0.291 0.296 0.586 69 934 583
42 Takashi Saito 2006 36 LAD NL 6 2 24 48 19 18 23 2.07 218 1.87 78.1 3 107 303 271 12 1 3 2 3 4 6 5 0 0 0 2 0.177 0.243 0.262 0.505 33 1309 844
43 Mark Wohlers 1995 25 ATL NL 7 3 25 51 16 15 24 2.09 204 1.88 64.2 2 90 269 242 6 1 3 1 2 0 3 5 0 0 0 4 0.211 0.285 0.269 0.553 49
44 Mariano Rivera 1996 26 NYY AL 8 3 5 73 25 25 34 2.09 240 1.88 107.2 1 130 425 386 12 0 3 2 2 1 6 3 1 1 0 1 0.189 0.258 0.228 0.486 24
45 Bruce Sutter 1979 26 CHC NL 6 6 37 67 29 25 32 2.22 188 1.89 101.1 3 110 403 361 8 2 5 0 6 4 5 8 2 0 0 9 0.186 0.249 0.244 0.493 34
46 Kenley Jansen 2014 26 LAD NL 2 3 44 55 20 20 19 2.76 127 1.91 65.1 5 101 268 246 10 1 2 0 1 2 1 6 2 0 0 2 0.224 0.277 0.333 0.610 79 1061 744
47 Trevor Rosenthal 2013 23 STL NL 2 4 3 63 25 22 20 2.63 143 1.91 75.1 4 108 311 282 13 1 0 6 3 0 5 0 2 0 0 3 0.223 0.289 0.319 0.608 72 1287 874
48 Craig Kimbrel 2013 25 ATL NL 4 3 50 39 10 9 20 1.21 311 1.93 67.0 4 98 258 235 7 0 2 3 0 0 3 3 2 0 0 3 0.166 0.240 0.247 0.487 39 1043 670
49 Arthur Rhodes 2002 32 SEA AL 10 4 2 45 18 18 13 2.33 183 1.94 69.2 4 81 257 241 7 1 1 0 2 1 7 1 3 0 0 2 0.187 0.227 0.274 0.501 34 1043 705
50 Larry Andersen 1989 36 HOU NL 4 4 3 63 19 15 24 1.54 222 1.94 87.2 2 85 351 318 5 2 4 0 4 5 4 7 2 0 1 2 0.198 0.251 0.245 0.496 48
51 Jason Grilli 2013 36 PIT NL 0 2 33 40 15 15 13 2.70 133 1.97 50.0 4 74 202 187 5 2 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 1 0.214 0.269 0.326 0.595 73 836 572
52 Robb Nen 2002 32 SFG NL 6 2 43 64 19 18 20 2.20 177 1.97 73.2 2 81 301 276 10 2 8 1 4 0 6 6 0 0 0 1 0.232 0.286 0.304 0.591 63 1102 760
53 Bryan Harvey 1991 28 CAL AL 2 4 46 51 20 14 17 1.60 257 1.97 78.2 6 101 309 286 7 0 3 1 3 2 3 12 0 0 2 2 0.178 0.225 0.266 0.491 36
54 Jonathan Broxton 2009 25 LAD NL 7 2 36 44 24 22 29 2.61 154 1.97 76.0 4 114 300 267 4 1 1 1 0 3 1 7 1 0 0 2 0.165 0.247 0.232 0.479 34 1225 813
55 Brad Lidge 2004 27 HOU NL 6 5 29 57 21 20 30 1.90 228 1.97 94.2 8 157 369 328 6 4 5 6 3 2 5 2 5 0 1 3 0.174 0.254 0.290 0.544 44 1478 989
56 Kenley Jansen 2013 25 LAD NL 4 3 28 48 16 16 18 1.88 190 1.99 76.2 6 111 292 271 6 1 1 3 0 0 5 7 2 0 0 2 0.177 0.236 0.273 0.509 48 1245 852

That's some mighty fine relief pitching there. Our boy Dutch checks in twice on that list, for his 2013 and 2014 seasons. He's been pretty good too. Kimbrel and Rob Dibble appear the most on the list, with 4 seasons each. Kenley Jansen has had 3, and Chapman, Gagne, Eckersley, Holland, Bruce Sutter, and Jake McGee are the others with 2 appearances. Ok, so now to the numbers. That list is ranked by FIP. Wade Davis recorded the fourth lowest FIP by a relief pitcher ever, at 1.19. So that's a good start.

How about Hits per 9? That actually wasn't a given category from this baseball-reference data export, but it's easy enough to figure out. Here's that same list, ranked by K/9:

Rk Player Year H/9
1 Aroldis Chapman 2014 3.50
2 Craig Kimbrel 2012 3.91
3 Koji Uehara 2013 4.01
4 Eric Gagne 2003 4.06
5 Billy Wagner 1999 4.25
6 Hung-Chih Kuo 2010 4.35
7 Craig Kimbrel 2014 4.41
8 Aroldis Chapman 2012 4.42
9 Dellin Betances 2014 4.60
10 Wade Davis 2014 4.75

Ok, he checks in at a respectable 10th place. Chapman allowed 21 hits in 54 innings, and Kimbrel allowed 27 hits in 62.2 innings. Jeez... what's ERA+ look like?

Rk Player Year ERA+
1 Dennis Eckersley 1990 603
2 Craig Kimbrel 2012 399
3 Wade Davis 2014 399
4 David Robertson 2011 399
5 John Smoltz 2003 385
6 Koji Uehara 2013 379
7 Greg Holland 2013 342
8 Eric Gagne 2003 337
9 Bruce Sutter 1977 328
10 Hung-Chih Kuo 2010 324

Wade checks in tied for 2nd with 399, which I find a little odd. I checked his ERA+ a few days ago for my Wade vs Mo post and it was 403. But now BBref is saying 399, which is also Kimbrel's and Robertson's. I'll have to investigate this more at a later date. Still though. It's basically 400. It's really really good.

Ok, so I've done a few specific rankings, but now it's time to do something that I like to do with big lists like this. I will rank all 56 seasons in important categories, and then assign point values based on the rankings. 56 points for a 1st place ranking, and 1 point for a 56th place ranking. Which means the worst score anyone could get is 9, because I'm ranking these 9 categories: ERA+, FIP, H/9, HR/9, K/9, AVG, OBP, SLG, and OPS+. If anyone has a problem with my selection, you can go ahead and pick other categories to rank and do the leg work yourself, I won't mind :) You would be correct if you noticed that this system weighs all 9 categories evenly. It's coming off of the top of my head so by no means is this analysis perfect. But I think it's fun and it does give a good snapshot.

The highest anyone could rank is 9*56, or 504. So here's the payoff of this whole post. Let's see what those rankings look like:

Rk Player Year Total 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
1 Eric Gagne 2003 466 0 2 1 2 1 1 0 1 0 0
2 Craig Kimbrel 2012 465 3 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
3 Wade Davis 2014 446 1 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 2
4 Aroldis Chapman 2014 428 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
5 Billy Wagner 1999 399 0 0 0 1 3 1 1 0 0 0
6 Dennis Eckersley 1990 396 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 0
7 Aroldis Chapman 2012 391 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 0
8 Hung-Chih Kuo 2010 388 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 0 1 1
9 Dellin Betances 2014 385 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1
10 Koji Uehara 2013 380 1 0 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
11 Craig Kimbrel 2014 364 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0
12 Andrew Miller 2014 364 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
13 Greg Holland 2013 359 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0
14 Joe Nathan 2006 357 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
15 Francisco Rodriguez 2004 339 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
16 David Robertson 2011 327 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0
17 Greg Holland 2014 308 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
18 Dave Smith 1987 300 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
19 Jake McGee 2012 294 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
20 Craig Kimbrel 2011 285 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
21 Rob Dibble 1990 279 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
22 Bruce Sutter 1977 278 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
23 Craig Kimbrel 2013 278 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
24 Mariano Rivera 1996 268 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
25 Kenley Jansen 2011 268 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
26 Sean Doolittle 2014 266 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
27 Jonathan Broxton 2009 264 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
28 John Smoltz 2003 261 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
29 Takashi Saito 2006 259 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
30 Jake McGee 2014 252 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
31 Rob Dibble 1989 233 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
32 Bryan Harvey 1991 223 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
33 Bruce Sutter 1979 221 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
34 Brad Lidge 2004 217 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
35 John Wetteland 1993 216 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
36 Mark Melancon 2013 202 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
37 Larry Andersen 1989 196 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
38 J.J. Putz 2006 196 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
39 Arthur Rhodes 2002 196 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
40 Rob Dibble 1992 194 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
41 Kenley Jansen 2013 193 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
42 Eric Gagne 2002 189 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
43 Jonathan Papelbon 2011 186 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
44 Duane Ward 1991 184 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
45 Mark Wohlers 1995 170 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
46 Terry Forster 1972 160 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
47 Doug Jones 1988 159 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
48 Dennis Eckersley 1992 151 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
49 Tom Henke 1989 143 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
50 Rob Dibble 1991 130 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
51 Sean Marshall 2011 120 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
52 Danny Farquhar 2013 117 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
53 Robb Nen 2002 95 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
54 Trevor Rosenthal 2013 92 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
55 Jason Grilli 2013 86 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
56 Kenley Jansen 2014 84 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

This shows the pitchers with their total score, as well as their count of all top 10 finishes. So for example, Gagne was never first in any of these categories, but he was 2nd twice, 3rd once, 4th twice, etc. Kimbrel finished first or second 7 different times, which is nuts. Both Gagne's 2003 and Kimbrel's 2012 rank about 20 points higher than Wade's 2014, and you could convince me that either of those seasons could be considered the best relief season in the history of the game. But like, damn dude, Wade's 2014 is pretty easily 3rd place on this list. Again, I know it's not an exact science, but this is still pretty freaking unbelievable to me. And it's worth pointing out that Holland checks in at 13th and 17th all-time as well. Our boys have been nasty, but last year Wade was on another level entirely. Crazy, right?

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