April 27, 2007
No Saves
Jason writes:
I was wondering if you could look up a record for me, since I haven't been able to locate it. What is the MLB record for the longest a team has gone into the season, without recording a save? The Yankees this year are now 20 games in without one, as upset about that as I am (being a Yankee fan), I was wondering what the record was. Obviously it'd have to date back to when the stat was first recorded. Thank you.
Good question, and the answer is that the record is longer than I imagined. The save statistic became official in 1969.
1975 | BAL | 57 |
1975 | NYA | 33 |
1974 | KCA | 31 |
1969 | CLE | 25 |
2002 | DET | 25 |
1974 | TEX | 23 |
1976 | BOS | 23 |
1975 | CIN | 22 |
1988 | BAL | 21 |
1978 | SLN | 20 |
1974 | LAN | 20 |
1988 | PHI | 19 |
2007 | NYA | 20 |
1981 | CHN | 17 |
2005 | DET | 17 |
2005 | FLA | 16 |
1986 | LAN | 16 |
1994 | SEA | 16 |
1971 | CHN | 16 |
1996 | OAK | 16 |
1996 | FLO | 15 |
2005 | TB | 15 |
1975 | TEX | 15 |
1982 | LAN | 15 |
The current Yankees streak of 20 games isn't even the team record. 1975 Was the year the save rule as we know it now came into existence. It could very well be that managers that season weren't managing to the rule yet. In other words, they might send a pitcher out to start the ninth with a platoon advantage, get one batter, then change pitchers. If the lead were three runs, the incoming pitcher would not get a save. It just goes to show how a stat changed baseball strategy.
On the other hand, if you look at the last 20 years or so on this list, these are NOT good teams.
2002 Detroit - 55-106
1988 Baltimore - 54-107 (I think I remember why they went 21 straight without a save...)
1988 Philly - 65-96
2007 Yanks - ?
2005 Detroit - 71-91
2005 Florida - 83-79
1986 LA - 73-89
1994 Seattle - 49-63
1996 Oakland - 78-84
1996 Florida - 80-82
2005 Tampa - 67-95
I might be worried if I was a Yankee fan...
When Rollie Fingers won the Cy Young award in 1981 as a reliever he had only 28 "saves." I heard him say in an interview that when he was active, managers just handed "saves" around without any notion of tallying the totals. The idea that this stat could be manipulated as it has been in recent years--selling the "saves stat" alone as a basis for winning the Cy Young, or at least endless coverage in the media--is the result of media, not the stat itself.
The primary goal of the sabermetric community should be to find a relief pitching stat to replace the save so that managers will stop making decisions based on it. I realize it's hard to find something that's both (1) an accurate measure of the real contribution a relief pitcher's has made to his team's chances of winning and (2) simple enough for the average fan to understand. But there's gotta be something better!
thanks for this info. any idea what the record is for most save opportunities blown to start the season?