A while ago Rich Lederer at Baseball Analysts put together a "matrix" of pitcher types using groundball percentage and strikeout percentage. I wanted to do something similar for the bullpen candidates, and here it is:
It's important to note that Rodriguez, Salas, Thayer, and Childers' numbers are all from Triple-A relief work, but we can still gather some observations:
- Chad Bradford gets a lot of grounders and not a load of strikeouts.
- Balfour is the anti-Bradford.
- Percival/Wheeler are strikingly alike.
- Hammel is meh on both.
- Rodriguez is less like Bradford and more like Howell.
- Childers was Bradford with strikeouts (note: Childers other minor league stats don't really back his GB% up, he's more likely in the 55% range than 60%)
- I didn't include Niemann or Talbot because their numbers are as starters.
- Joe Nelson would place right underneath Thayer.
- The Rays should NRI a few more relievers for Durham and so we can all pointlessly obsess on their pros and cons.