The Greatest Season for a Closer in MLB History...
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by user ChiSoxMO30
Texas Rangers closer Eric Gagne has been solid thus far after spending much of the last two seasons on the DL. With his recent success -- coupled with the fact the Rangers have the worst record in all of baseball -- he finds himself on the trading block. Look for him to possibly get dealt to Detroit, because Todd Jones is simply not getting it done -- and Joel Zumaya will be out for much of the season.
With Gagne's resurgence on the mound, I thought it would be a good time to determine which pitcher had the single-greatest season for a closer in baseball history. Is it Gagne's 2003 campaign with the LA Dodgers, or is it Mariano in 2005? Or could it be someone else?
Let's examine...
Here are the five choices:
- Bobby Thigpen 1990
- Dennis Eckersley 1990
- Trevor Hoffman 1998
- Eric Gagne 2003
- Mariano Rivera 2005
Let's break it down with a 'tale of the tape', a la Nick Bakay.
For every stat category, I will award 5, 4, 3, 2 or 1 point to the five pitchers, depending mostly on statistics, but also on some deductive reasoning.
--Games Played:
- Thigpen (1990): 77
- Eckersley (1990): 63
- Hoffman (1998): 66
- Gagne (2003): 77
- Rivera (2005): 71
The more games, the better. I give Gagne's 77 games an edge over Thigpens' because in the early 1990's closers came into the game more often than they do now.
- Gagne: 5 points
- Thigpen: 4 points
- Rivera: 3 points
- Hoffman: 2 points
- Eckersley: 1 point
--Innings Pitched:
- Thigpen: 88 2/3
- Eckersley: 73 1/3
- Hoffman: 73
- Gagne: 82 1/3
- Rivera: 78 1/3
Pretty much the same scoring as above, except, this time, I give the edge to Thigpen over Gagne because he averaged more innings per appearance. I also place Eckersley over Hoffman for the same reason.
- Thigpen: 5 points (9 points thus far)
- Gagne: 4 points (9 pts)
- Rivera: 3 points (6 pts)
- Eckersley: 2 points (3 pts)
- Hoffman: 1 point (3 pts)
--Wins:
- Thigpen: 4
- Eckersley: 4
- Hoffman: 4
- Gagne: 2
- Rivera: 7
First place and last place here are simple. The three-way-tie for second through fourth made things a bit complicated. Thigpen pitched the most games, so he finishes last amongst the trio. Trevor and Dennis pitched just about the same amount of games, so I give the edge to Hoffman, because he had fewer blown saves.
- Rivera: 5 points (11 pts)
- Hoffman: 4 points (7 pts)
- Eckersley: 3 points (6 pts)
- Thigpen: 2 points (11 pts)
- Gagne: 1 point (10 pts)
--Losses:
- Thigpen: 6
- Eckersley: 2
- Hoffman: 2
- Gagne: 3
- Rivera: 4
Quite simply, the more you have, the less points I'm entitled to give you. And the more losses you have can typically be attributed to either a blown save, or when you came in with the score tied and you lost the game. Hoffman came into three more games than the Eck did, so he gets the tiebreak.
- Hoffman: 5 points (12 pts)
- Eckersley: 4 points (10 pts)
- Gagne: 3 points (13 pts)
- Rivera: 2 points (13 pts)
- Thigpen: 1 point (12 pts)
--Saves:
- Thigpen: 57
- Eckersley: 48
- Hoffman: 53
- Gagne: 55
- Rivera: 43
This is a tough call. Thigpen has the single-season record of 57 saves in a season. But Gagne was a PERFECT 55 for 55 on the season. It's not Gagne's fault he didn't have as many opportunities as Thigpen. Thigpen wasn't perfect, Gagne was, he gets the five points.
- Gagne: 5 points (18 pts)
- Thigpen: 4 points (16 pts)
- Hoffman: 3 points (15 pts)
- Eckersley: 2 points (12 pts)
- Rivera: 1 point (14 pts)
--Blown Saves:
- Thigpen: 8
- Eckersley: 2
- Hoffman: 1
- Gagne: 0
- Rivera: 4
Gagne easily claims the five points. Hoffman was almost perfect as well, so he gets four.
- Gagne: 5 points (23 pts)
- Hoffman: 4 points (19 pts)
- 'Eckersley : 3 points (15 pts)
- Rivera: 2 points (16 pts)
- Thigpen: 1 point (17 pts)
--Hits Allowed:
- Thigpen: 60
- Eckersley: 41
- Hoffman: 41
- Gagne: 37
- Rivera: 50
To determine this stat, you really just have to figure out how many hits per inning the pitcher allowed (see below). I gave edge to Eck over Trevor because he was just a fraction better statiscially. And although Mariano was a tad better than Bobby, I gave Thigpen the edge because he threw 10 1/3 more innings than Mariano.
- Thigpen: .67
- Eckerlsey: .56
- Hoffman: .56
- Gagne: .45
- Rivera: .64
- Gagne: 5 points (28 pts)
- Eckersley: 4 points (19 pts)
- Hoffman: 3 points (22 pts)
- Thigpen: 2 points (19 pts)
- Rivera: 1 point (17 pts)
--Home Runs Allowed:
- Thigpen: 5
- Eckersley: 2
- Hoffman: 2
- Gagne: 2
- Rivera: 2
With four tied for first, it will all boil down to whoever only gave up two gopher balls in the most innings.
- Gagne: 5 points (33 pts)
- Rivera: 4 points (21 pts)
- Eckerlsey: 3 points (22 pts)
- Hoffman: 2 points (24 pts)
- Thigpen: 1 point (20 pts)
--Walks Allowed:
- Thigpen: 32
- Eckersley: 4
- Hoffman: 21
- Gagne: 20
- Rivera: 18
It's evident what pitcher is getting the five points and which pitcher is getting just one. The remaining points in the middle is a bit cluttered. Hoffman pitched the least amount of innings, and he had more than both Gagne and Rivera (so he gets 2 pts). And Rivera beats out Gagne because he averaged less walks per inning (0.229 to 0.243)
On a side note, do you realize how incredible four walks in 73 1/3 innings is?
- Eckersley: 5 points (27 pts)
- Rivera: 4 points (25 pts)
- Gagne: 3 points (36 pts)
- Hoffman: 2 points (26 pts)
- Thigpen: 1 point (21 pts)
--Strikeouts:
- Thigpen: 70
- Eckersley: 73
- Hoffman: 86
- Gagne: 137
- Rivera: 80
Gagne wins easily. Incredible strikeout rate (1.66 K's per inning). The numbers go by K/9.
- Gagne: 5 points (41 pts)
- Hoffman: 4 points (30 pts)
- Rivera: 3 points (28 pts)
- Eckersley: 2 points (29 pts)
- Thigpen: 1 point (22 pts)
--Earned Run Average:
- Thigpen: 1.83
- Eckersley: 0.61
- Hoffman: 1.48
- Gagne: 1.20
- Rivera: 1.38
Self-explanatory. Good luck ever seeing another ERA like Eck's again.
- Eckersley: 5 points (34 pts)
- Gagne: 4 points (45 pts)
- Rivera: 3 points (31 pts)
- Hoffman: 2 points (32 pts)
- Thigpen: 1 point (23 pts)
--Walks + Hits per Innings Pitched:
- Thigpen: 1.038
- Eckersley: 0.614
- Hoffman: 0.849
- Gagne: 0.692
- Rivera: 0.868
I give the edge to Gagne over Eck because he pitched 9 more innings. I give Mariano the edge over Trevor because he pitched 5 1/3 more innings.
- Gagne: 5 points (50 pts)
- Eckersley: 4 points (38 pts)
- Rivera: 3 points (34 pts)
- Hoffman: 2 points (34 pts)
- Thigpen: 1 point (24 pts)
--Batting Average Against:
- Thigpen: .195
- Eckersley: .160
- Hoffman: .165
- Gagne: .133
- Rivera: .177
Going strictly by the numbers here...
- Gagne: 5 points (55 pts)
- Eckersley: 4 points (42 pts)
- Hoffman: 3 points (37 pts)
- Rivera: 2 points (36 pts)
- Thigpen: 1 point (25 pts)
- Eric Gagne 2003: 55 pts
- Dennis Eckersley 1990: 42 pts
- Trevor Hoffman 1998: 37 pts
- Mariano Rivera 2005: 36 pts
- Bobby Thigpen 1990: 25 pts
So there, you have it folks! According to the 'tale of the tape,' Eric Gagne's 2003 season was the best of all-time for any closer. I think this was a fairly accurate potrayal of the order of the five best seasons in history.
