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Baseball is cruel to all of its children, but it’s particularly harsh on relievers. Even with the trend towards shorter appearances, it’s starters who hog the glory. They’re the ones who rack up the big numbers, most of the awards and most of the money. They’re the ones with the shots at perfect games and no-hitters. Ok, so sometimes there are
combined no-hitters, but who remembers that Kirk Saarloos threw an inning and a third of a Houston Astros no-hitter? Not even his family, I bet.
Relievers get saves and holds, but the save is so contrived that one was recorded in a game won by 27 runs, and I think everyone knows the only people who pay attention to holds are the folks who care way too much about fantasy baseball. Besides, both saves and holds are too common to be properly exciting. What’s the pinnacle of relieverism? What’s the most incredible thing a reliever could do in a single game?
The following article is part of Jay Jaffe’s ongoing look at the candidates on the BBWAA 2021 Hall of Fame ballot. Originally written for the 2017 election at SI.com, it has been updated to reflect recent voting results as well as additional research. For a detailed introduction to this year’s ballot, and other candidates in the series, use the tool above; an introduction to JAWS can be found here. For a tentative schedule and a chance to fill out a Hall of Fame ballot for our crowdsourcing project, see here. All WAR figures refer to the Baseball-Reference version unless otherwise indicated.
the orioles are in chicago to open up the second half of this season, and the second half is about improvement individually and as a team, and stay away from that end of the season swoon. for chick ago, it s about getting back to the playoffs. game one of the second half coming up from chicago s u.s. cellular field. gary: the orioles have a three-game set here beginning a long nine-game, 10-day road trip. and it is mull it night. it s much easier and probably safer than the demolition disco that took place here and burned most of the old co missky up. great to have you with us as we begin the second half of this season. for the orioles, it is about improvement, and improvement is what it has been if you take a look at the first half of the season and cut that in two. there, the orioles have improved in virtually every category, the offense, most importantly for the orioles, that era number that s down there, hitting with runners in scoring position has always been a