A few days ago, Mark Whicker made the case for Frankie Rodriguez to be MVP of the American League:
The Angels played 89 games decided by one or two runs. They won 19 1-run games on the road. Rodriguez was the reason why. He also saved a MLB-record 62 in 69 attempts. In other words, he saved 62 percent of their victories. With a merely decent closer the Angels would not have had the best record in baseball - not that it did them any good - and might have actually stumbled, because shaky closers infect the clubhouse with doubt. With no clear-cut offensive front-runner, Rodriguez was not a hard choice for me, but I’ll bet he gets no official first-place votes.
Well, he’d better not. As a rationale for choosing an MVP, this measure is questionable — any number of players could get “credit” for the three more wins the Angels had than the Rays, including Howie Kendrick, Joe Saunders and Mike Napoli. But Whicker’s argument that no “merely decent closer” could have done the same thing is also incorrect.
The Angels won 100 games. The Rays won 97. Frankie blew seven saves; he could have blown 10 and the Angels still would have had the American League’s best record. Ten of 69 is a shade over 85 percent. Would “a merely decent closer” have saved 59 games if given 69 tries?
Probably. Brian Wilson is merely decent and he saved more than 85 percent of his chances. Brian Fuente
s is merely decent and he easily saved that many. In fact, of the 20 closers who saved more than 20 games, 13 of them saved more than 85 percent. (Two more saved exactly 85 percent.)
That list includes merely decent Bobby Jenks, merely decent Troy Percival, merely decent Trevor Hoffman. The good ones did much better. Mariano Rivera saved 39 out of his 40 chances. Brad Lidge, of course, saved every one he was given.
Shoot, even not-nearly decent CJ Wilson, whose ERA was 6.02, and who lost his job in Texas by September, saved 24 games and blew only four. That’s a success rate of 85.7 percent — high enough to keep the Angels on top in the AL.
