Well, that was quick. Not even a year after Neftali Feliz notched 40 saves in his rookie campaign, Craig Kimbrel broke the record with a month left in the season by completing the Atlanta Braves’ 3-1 victory over the Washington Nationals for his 41st save of the season. Derek Lowe began the game with 6 strong innings and his first career home run before yielding to a Mike Morse home run. Eric O’Flaherty and Jonny Venters bridged the gap to Kimbrel, who would notch another 2 Ks in final inning.
Saves, however, are not a true description of a reliever’s talent. While they come at the end of a game and protect the final lead, they are frequently not the most important or high-leveraged situation of the game, and the save has become one of the more overrated statistics in baseball. Despite all that, what Kimbrel has done this season has been nothing short of dominant.
Let’s begin with a look at the statistics, shall we? His strikeout rate of 14.61 is 6th all-time amon pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched during a season, and his walk rate of 3.48 is 4th among those 6. Not surprisingly, his K/BB of 4.20 (remember, most pitchers have a K/BB around 2) is also 4th among those six. Adding only 1 HR to his bill, Kimbrel has amassed a fWAR of 3.2, which is almost a full win better than his nearest competitors Sean Marshall of the Cubs and Jonathan Papelbon of the Red Sox. If he were a starter, he would be better than all but 26 of them. To put this in a larger perspective, Mariano Rivera only has three seasons that match or surpass Kimbrel’s total, with his 1996 campaign of 4.4 wins the only one that Kimbrel is not like to pass, and Eric Gagne’s 2003 Cy Young was a bit better than that at 4.5 wins due to a 14.98 K/9 and miniscule 2.19 BB/9.
What Kimbrel has done this year has been astounding. The once Wild Thing has reigned in his command issues to become the most dominant reliever in the game, and while the rookie saves record does not accurately reflect his accomplishments, Kimbrel is legitimately the Rookie of the Year for the NL and should win the Rolaids Relief Man Award for all the right reasons.
Tonight’s Games: Highly-touted Jacob Turner will make his return to MLB action against another highly-touted young pitcher in Danny Duffy … AJ Burnetty will try to salvage a rotation spot against Jon Lester … and Jeff Niemann will try to turn a strong June into a strong finish against CJ Wilson.
