Dan Wheeler and Jon Brett...Jon's side

by jon_b on Aug 8, 2009 1:38 AM EDT

Jon Brett has officially joined the Rays blogosphere!

A recent fanshot brought up a comment made about Dan Wheeler's (in)effectiveness in comparison to Percy. Well, truth is my skin crawls a lot when either get (or got for percy's sake) to the mound. Since this community seems to be extremely stat oriented, here's some numbers for you to pontificate. In the last 3 seasons (this year included), Dirty Dan has 12 blown saves in 26 SVOpp's. This year, he's blown 4 of 5. Now, I'm not much of a mathematician but Percy was 28 of 32 last year. That's better right?? Don't get me wrong, not suggesting that it wasn't his time to head off to the pastures...just an interesting comparison. Guess it all boils down to what numbers you're looking at.

Poll

WIll Wheeler get any more save opportunities this year?

yes

15 votes

no

3 votes

18 votes | Poll has closed

This post was written by a member of the DRaysBay community and does not necessarily express the views or opinions of DRaysBay staff.

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Comments

That'd be interesting...

If you weren’t comparing apples and oranges. Setup men get blown saves if they give up a lead, but if they keep the lead, all they get is a hold and it’s not even counted in the save opportunities. So on top of saves being a useless stat, you’re compounding the issue by counting blown saves that mostly occur in the 8th inning, which is, astonishingly, even more useless.

by antimatter on Aug 8, 2009 2:26 AM EDT reply actions

While JP will get most of the save oppurtunities

there will be a time in which JP will be unavalaible to pitch and Wheeler will be and Joe will go to Wheeler, and it would be the right move. Sadly right now we have a total of 3 guys that I have any confidence in and Joe seems to be scared to use Cormier in a late inning role.

by Dbullsfan on Aug 8, 2009 2:46 AM EDT reply actions

JP is the closer

Wheeler only gets opps when JP is unavailable or perhaps its a 3 run lead vs a crappy team.

Can David Ortiz please send Dioner Navarro some of his PED's? K? Thanks

by matthan on Aug 8, 2009 11:08 AM EDT reply actions

I heard you're the reason that the Jews have a homeland

I hate you for this, Jon Brett.

I can't help that I make some things look easier than they really are.

by Sandy Kazmir on Aug 8, 2009 11:49 AM EDT reply actions

Yes, it does matter what numbers you are looking at.

For example, before being the de facto closer, Howell had 5 blown saves this year (and just 2 saves). I guess he was worse than Percival.

Or you could use other numbers to support your distaste for a player. You might consider the number of times he steps out of the batter’s box, or how often he throws to 1B or any number of other meaningless numbers.

Once someone has decided that a player is either good or bad, usually because of some anecdotal experiences, all information that appears to support that view leaps to view or is interpreted as relevant to that view, and everything else is suppressed or reinterpreted.

by bobr on Aug 9, 2009 7:07 AM EDT reply actions