We like lots of relief pitchers. We have discussed the reasoning many times, so there is no need to delve into that here. Here are the available FA RPs (except for Ken Takahashi and Doug Mathis), and how they look compared to league average in two very important areas: Strikeouts per nine innings pitched and groundball ratio. This is from their last four years of big league data.
| NAME | SO Rate | GB% |
| Al Reyes | 9.31 | 32.92% |
| Aquilino Lopez | 6.13 | 41.32% |
| Brendan Donnelly | 9.28 | 50.81% |
| Brian Shouse | 6.21 | 64.38% |
| Casey Fossum | 6.83 | 54.16% |
| Chris Britton | 5.84 | 35.52% |
| Denny Bautista | 6.19 | 49.01% |
| Dennys Reyes | 7.65 | 66.50% |
| Elmer Dessens | 6.15 | 58.70% |
| Gary Majewski | 5.34 | 56.74% |
| Glendon Rusch | 6.46 | 50.39% |
| Guillermo Mota | 7.71 | 51.03% |
| Jamey Wright | 4.93 | 63.08% |
| Jason Johnson | 5.42 | 62.64% |
| Joe Beimel | 4.98 | 56.22% |
| Joe Borowski | 7.63 | 39.61% |
| Joe Nelson | 9.87 | 43.95% |
| Jon Lieber | 5.36 | 55.06% |
| Juan Cruz | 9.89 | 48.41% |
| Juan Rincon | 9.30 | 53.08% |
| Julian Tavarez | 6.05 | 59.51% |
| Keith Foulke | 7.92 | 38.94% |
| Kip Wells | 6.99 | 57.93% |
| Lance Cormier | 5.24 | 58.73% |
| League Average | 6.83 | 49.05% |
| Luis Ayala | 6.15 | 59.92% |
| Mark Hendrickson | 5.10 | 55.48% |
| Matt Herges | 5.43 | 53.03% |
| Matt Wise | 5.82 | 50.54% |
| Mike Timlin | 5.74 | 54.06% |
| Randy Flores | 7.06 | 49.11% |
| Ricardo Rincon | 8.40 | 52.20% |
| Ron Villone | 7.06 | 46.29% |
| Rudy Seanez | 8.48 | 47.97% |
| Russ Springer | 7.75 | 35.81% |
| Scott Elarton | 5.26 | 41.06% |
| Scott Proctor | 7.82 | 40.68% |
| Shawn Chacon | 6.43 | 44.58% |
| Tom Gordon | 9.28 | 53.41% |
| Tyler Johnson | 7.39 | 45.96% |
| Will Ohman | 8.98 | 41.73% |
| Wlfredo Ledezma | 6.68 | 38.02% |
| Yhency Brazoban | 7.92 | 39.10% |
As you can see, league average is 49.05% and 6.83 for GB% and K/9, respectively. It would be great if we could could get someone who excels at both. An easy way to look at this (as RJ has shown us) is in graphical form.
If you click on it, then it will get larger. Spare me the TWSS.
The 4 quadrants are with the lines for LA numbers. Ideally, we'd like someone from quadrant I (x>6.83, y>49.06%). There are definitely some standouts, and some potential buy-low candidates.
What does everyone think?
Disclaimer: The batted ball data (GB%) is based on Baseball Prospectus's data, which is apparently not as reliable as others. It is the one that is the best for running reports. SO, you take what you can get.