Saving Grace

Coming into the season, I thought a lot of things would change in Palisades. One of them was the use of closers. We had several élite level pitchers who weren't starting the season as their teams' #3/reliever extraordinaire, with the eye on making them a starter later in the season. Most notably, the Pirates had Robles, and the Mariners had Fliesser. Well, the Pirates have only two wins this season, but the Mariners have nine thus far. Needless to say, your team needs to succeed for your late-inning and/or late-season strategy to be effective.

In any case, like baseball was way back when America's chief concern was Communism, wiffleball games are typically started and finished by the starting pitcher. I haven't run the numbers, but I'll ballpark it at north of 75% of all games have less than one pitching change. One primary reason behind why there would be a pitching change at all is when the starter is getting shelled, and there's still belief in winning the game before the mercy rule kicks in. Another primary reason is when both pitchers are hittable that day, and there's an attempt made to stop the bleeding. Mid-game injuries? Almost never. Mental breakdown? This is wiffleball, dammit. Closer? Well...

This season there have been three players thus far to record a save, Kyle Vonschleusingen battened down the hatches for the Marlins in Week Three to secure what turned out to be Pete Montanez's final career victory.  After striking out Orioles' Nick Santana to begin the fifth, Trenary bopped a single and Goldie walked. KV would go onto strikeout Bennett and then Santana again to end the game. It wasn't pretty, but a win is a win is a win, as they say.

Other than KV's save, there's only been 20 others in regular season history inside the Palisades battlegrounds. Seven of those 20 have been recorded by two players this season, Matt Fliesser and Rich Guillod. Shocker, I know.

First let's look at the total stats through Week Seven:

*Fliesser:  4 Sv, 6.2 IP, 19:2 K:BB, 1 H (Solo HR), 1 Mid-Inning appearance, 3 multi-inning appearances all for 2 IP.

*Guillod:  3 Sv, 3.2 IP, 10:3 K:BB,  zero H & R, 1 Mid-Inning appearance, 1 Multi-Inning appearance (2 IP).

Neither have blown, or allowed inherited runners to score either.

It's tough to argue that the Dodgers should be doing anything different from what they have been. Only six games, where they're 5-1, have finished within three runs one way or the other. Of the three games that finished that close, two were started by Guillod himself.

The Mariners however have had 10 of their first dozen games finish within three runs. They're 5-5 including a walk-off win (Fliesser's grandslam in Week One) and a 0-0 total bases loss.  Four of these ten games Fliesser has started, he's 3-2 (he relieved Vanagas in the walk-off win) and just one of these saves.

So, could the Mariners have made better use of his flame-throwing arm? Not really. He didn't make his first start until their eighth game, a 1-0 loss to the Dodgers, even though he'd already made four relief appearances totaling; 6.2 IP, 19:2 K:BB with a win and three saves.

So what's there to conclude about all this? Well, for one it's arguable that collectively we may be misusing our best pitchers. For some teams, like the Mariners, it's being forced to allow guys like Vanagas three starts and 11.1 innings of work. For others, like the Pirates, it's being unable to utilize Robles as a starter because he wanted to rest his arm. Forcing Joe Gallo to start four times and pitch 13.2 innings instead.

While others like the Angels can't seem to string together two good starts and teams like the Giants are so overly confident in their starters that the idea of a reliever is absurd.

Is there a place for relievers in wiffleball? Yes, the problem is that the games are so short and dominant starters that much more prized, plus the wiffleball itself is so finicky and pitching such a rhythmic endeavor that it's sometimes hard to pull the trigger.

The Save though, as a stat as we commonly know it, is really more like a hold though. It's a maintaining of the course, frequently on top of the necessity to clog the bleeding, that affords its value. What Guillod and in particular Fliesser has done is a remarkable feat, about 20% of his innings as a reliever, but at the end of the day the dominant starter who keeps himself healthy is the best player in the game.

* For a look at their box scores and score sheets...

Fliesser: Game 8, Box & Score | Game 10, B & S |Game 19, B & S |Game 28, B & S |Game 57, B & S.

Guillod:  Game 10, Box & Score |Game 37, B & S |Game 50, B & S.