RJ, Tommy, Erik, et al have done a good job so far pinpointing a few choice free agent relief pitchers. Today I'm going to take a macro-level look at the free agents and how they fared in a couple of important statistics the last three years: K% and GB%. I did a similar post last year in which I used K/9, but i felt that K% gives you a better look at the true talent-level of the pitcher as far as striking guys out.
After the jump you'll find a table of how all the FA RPs have performed in these two indicators over the last three years.
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| Pitcher (Type) | GB% | K% | Quadrant |
| O. Dotel (A) | 34.8% | 30.0% | II |
| B. Wagner (A) | 36.1% | 29.9% | II |
| R. Soriano (A) | 31.1% | 29.4% | II |
| M. Gonzalez (A) | 36.4% | 27.9% | II |
| J. Valverde (A) | 38.5% | 27.6% | II |
| J. Putz* | 42.4% | 25.9% | II |
| R. Betancourt* (A) | 28.4% | 24.8% | II |
| K. Calero (B) | 32.5% | 24.1% | II |
| J. Benoit | 33.4% | 23.8% | II |
| R. Springer (B) | 26.1% | 23.5% | II |
| K. Gregg (A) | 36.9% | 22.8% | II |
| F. Rodney (B) | 50.1% | 22.1% | I |
| T. Hoffman (A) | 35.8% | 22.1% | II |
| S. Eyre (B) | 36.6% | 20.9% | II |
| T. Percival | 26.9% | 20.5% | II |
| L. Vizcaino* | 35.1% | 20.3% | II |
| W. Ohman* (B) | 36.7% | 19.8% | II |
| C. Park (B) | 47.0% | 19.6% | I |
| B. Howry (B) | 33.3% | 19.3% | II |
| D. Oliver (A) | 46.5% | 19.1% | I |
| J. Isringhausen | 45.9% | 19.0% | I |
| J. Grabow (A) | 43.7% | 18.6% | I |
| R. Mahay | 43.1% | 18.3% | II |
| B. Donnelly | 36.1% | 18.3% | II |
| T. Gordon | 46.0% | 18.2% | I |
| A. Embree | 39.3% | 18.0% | II |
| J. Rincon | 44.8% | 17.8% | I |
| League Average | 43.6% | 17.6% | |
| G. Mota (B) | 41.4% | 17.5% | III |
| C. Vargas | 37.4% | 17.2% | III |
| R. Villone | 37.9% | 17.1% | III |
| D. Brocail* (B) | 42.6% | 16.8% | III |
| B. Tomko | 40.5% | 16.7% | III |
| L. Hawkins (A) | 51.2% | 16.6% | IV |
| M. Herges | 43.5% | 16.1% | III |
| B. Lyon (B) | 43.3% | 15.9% | III |
| K. Wells | 49.1% | 15.8% | IV |
| B. Shouse* (B) | 59.4% | 15.3% | IV |
| L. Ayala | 41.7% | 15.2% | III |
| R. Franklin* | 45.6% | 15.2% | IV |
| G. Glover | 38.6% | 15.2% | III |
| J. Walker | 34.7% | 15.1% | III |
| J. Wright | 58.7% | 15.0% | IV |
| M. Hendrickson | 44.3% | 14.8% | IV |
| M. Batista | 45.1% | 14.8% | IV |
| D. Sanchez | 40.5% | 14.8% | III |
| J. Beimel (B) | 44.8% | 14.4% | IV |
| M. Kobayashi* | 50.3% | 14.3% | IV |
| S. Schoeneweis | 49.3% | 14.2% | IV |
| J. Weaver | 37.5% | 14.2% | III |
| E. Guardado | 28.9% | 13.4% | III |
| D. Baez | 56.8% | 13.1% | IV |
| J. Fogg | 40.5% | 12.8% | III |
| E. Dessens | 43.8% | 12.2% | IV |
| G. Majewski | 50.8% | 12.1% | IV |
| C. Bradford | 62.9% | 8.9% | IV |
The final column, "Quadrant," refers to the quadrant they place in on the following scatter-plot: The "*" refers to players who have an option for 2010. Type obviously refers to whether the player projects to be a Type A/B free agent.
Ideally, you want a pitcher from quadrant I that gets more strikeouts and grounders than league average. There are a few of those guys, but someone like Fernando Rodney (the clear standout on the graph) will probably fetch more than we should spend because he's got the "proven closer" pedigree. Chan Ho Park really interests me, but he may be playing himself out of contention at this point.