Relievers and Perceptions

It’s hard to measure relievers. At least, we make it hard sometimes.

When I was younger, Bruce Sutter was viewed as a remarkably intimidating closer. He was the guy with the wicked split-fingered fastball, supposedly the inventor of it. He was striking out better than a batter per inning, and winning Rolaids Relief Man Awards, and saving World Series games while sporting a big bushy beard that wasn’t in vogue at the time.

Then I got older, and realized that his career numbers were nearly identical to those of Dan Quisenberry, the bookish erstwhile poet who threw underhanded and couldn’t break a pane of glass with his fastball. He had his own Rolaids Relief Man Awards, plus a World Series ring, and a bushy mustache, but he got hitters out by making them pound ground balls to his Gold Glove winner infielders rather than blowing them away.

They had virtually identical career numbers, but one guy seemed like Paul Bunyan while the other seemed like The Nutty Professor. Guess which one ended up in Cooperstown and which one was bounced from the ballot after just one year.