I was inspired by sansho1 to look a little harder at EOF.
Unless your league counts holds, Eric O’Flaherty isn’t much good for fantasy purposes because he isn’t a closer: he has zero career saves. And his one entry in the record books — most most relief innings pitched in a season with an ERA under 1.00, set back in 2011 (0.98 ERA, 73 2/3 IP) — became a historical footnote when Fernando Rodney passed him this year (0.60 ERA, 74 2/3 IP). Like sansho noted, he’s got a 91-mile an hour fastball: decent but not great. He’s got a career 3.84 xFIP, which doesn’t seem great. But he has the second-best ERA- in baseball over the past four years. I’d call him the most underrated reliever in baseball.
Eric O’Flaherty was drafted by the Seattle Mariners out of Walla Walla High School in the sixth round of the 2003 draft by his local team, the Seattle Mariners. He didn’t strike many people out in Rookie or Low-A ball, but then he added strikeouts and improved his control as a 21-year old in 2006, breaking out in a major way as he moved from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A. He made the main club the next year, but struggled with his control, struggled some more when they sent him back to the minors, and then suffered a back injury.
Basically, as Mac wrote, “The Mariners rushed him, and wound up wasting three years of options and losing him.” After he’d struggled as a situational lefty, the club put him on waivers, and the Braves claimed him as the 23-year old lefty had a 5.91 ERA in 70 major league innings. As Jay Yenich wrote at USS Mariner earlier this year:
[T]he first “hey, wait a second…†move to me of Zduriencik’s tenure was designating O’Flaherty for assignment, considering that we continue to look for a left-handed reliever in his absence.
Since then, he’s been one of the best relievers in all of baseball — at least, one of the best if you’re going by ERA. In the past four seasons, O’Flaherty has the second-best ERA- in baseball among all pitchers with at least 200 innings: 49, second only to Mike Adams‘s 46. He’s ninth in WPA and second in REW (run expectancy wins), behind only Rafael Soriano. He’s super good. But he also has the second-highest gap between his FIP and his ERA, 1.19, second only to Darren O’Day. What explains that gap?
Well, first of all, his LOB%. Not coincidentally, he is also second to O’Day in strand rate. Second, he also has a slightly below-average strikeout rate, for which he compensates by getting a whole lot of ground balls: his career 54.4 percent groundball percentage leapt to 66 percent this year. Third of all, and he doesn’t give up homers: he’s tied with Jonny Venters and Brian Wilson for the second-lowest HR/9 in baseball since 2009. (Brad Ziegler is first.) That’s another reason xFIP is so unkind to him.
The playoffs are probably the single time when bullpens matter most. The Tigers’ current closer, Phil Coke, is a LOOGY who’s been Peter Principled into the ninth inning job due to the utter implosion of Jose Valverde. The most famous member of the Giants bullpen is the guy who’s been injured all year, and Valverde may have cost himself tens of millions of free agent dollars with his meltdowns this October. O’Flaherty has been better over the past four years than anyone in either of the World Series bullpens other than Sergio Romo — and yet he’s only made $6.2 million dollars in his nine-year professional career, including signing bonus.
He has just over four years of major league service time, so the Braves will get him cheaply for now. “Underrated” relievers don’t always stay underrated, as the Padres underscored when they traded Mike Adams for Joe Weiland and Robbie Erlin. O’Flaherty has real trade value: he could close for most of the teams in baseball right now, he’s still under team control, and he made just $2.5 million this year. The Braves may not trade him, but they certainly ought to consider it.
Would Bethany approve of Beachy with a pony tail? Good DOB read fron left column.
http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-braves-blog/2012/10/22/beachy-working-on-patience-as-he-begins-throwing-program/?cxntfid=blogs_atlanta_braves_blog
Info on qualifying offer and like.
Update on Gattis.
No, long hair is not acceptable.
Has the rosterbation portion of the offseason commenced?
How ’bout them dawgs!
Gators…Gators… how’d you like to bite my ass?
Ugg. What an awful game. Not only was everyone screwing up constantly (chiefly the QBs), but to lose it in that way, after driving all the way down the field, with the ball in the hands of your best/most consistent playmaker and a senior at that….
And for UGA to back their way into the SEC championship game by playing the weakest group of teams from the West…. Yeesh.
AND to lose to Georgia twice in a row…. I’m almost positive that that hasn’t happened in my lifetime. At least not since I first moved to Gainesville. Bleh.
@6 At least you’re not an Auburn fan.
I thought A&M would score 46, but I didn’t think they’d nearly reach that in the first half.
How bout ol Blanco?
The Giants are still dreaming.
I’m thinking Alabama is pretty good. I don’t think Auburn is very good. Just an observation.
Goddamn. Gregor Blanco.
I can’t help but be happy for Blanco. I always thought he would be a great fourth outfielder for a championship team.
Evan Gattis hit another HR. He now has 6 doubles 4HR and a 1.087 OPS in 14 games.
Greetings from Asheville, NC…
How ’bout them Dawgs?
And how ’bout the force of nature named Jarvis Jones?
Nice town, Asheville. Enjoy, ububba.
Any thoughts on Torii Hunter? Despite rumors to the contrary I think the Angels will resign him (hopefully making Bourjos available), but if not Wren would have to be interested, right?
Mike Moustakas might be available for pitching.
Not sure, but I do know that Indiana recruit Peter Juerkin is still awaiting NCAA clearance.
Probably needs the Bobby Knight centerfold issue.
#15
Always dig that down, not to mention 12 Bones BBW.
Now I’ve returned home just in time for Frankenstorm.
BBW? What the hell’s that?
BBQ, of course.
Let’s just say you have intriguing taste, Jim.
Was down there for Moogfest, so I guess I like techno with my BBQ.
Translation: sansho1 mailed it in, so let’s try this again! j/k
12 Bones BBQ on a weekend that saw the Dawgs and Falcons win and the Techies lose sounds like a mighty fine weekend indeed.
Cynical article with weak analysis.
Interesting in a weird way/
http://paid.outbrain.com/network/redir?key=90a74a0f501c5d125bc7d709099323bb&rdid=403955356&type=RPM_d/g2_ch&in-site=false&idx=1&pc_id=3205979&req_id=2c2dad42e1d2517aaad98bf2f2d5d296&agent=blog_JS_rec&recMode=7&reqType=1&wid=100&imgType=0&adsCats=1902,-1,-1&refPub=2596&prs=true&scp=false&fcapElementId=1707
The Tigers are choking so, so badly.
Ryan, where did you see that Moustakas might be available for pitching?
He may hit Series-clinching home runs, but Posey will always be out.
Congratulations to the Giants. Next year, that’ll be us.
Five off days, you guys.
Very cool for Gregor Blanco.
How about the Falcons still getting very little credit from anybody in the media after just absolutely stepping on the Eagles in bad weather in a game these same people seemed to be assuming they’d lose? I guess the Eagles entirely did that to themselves, huh?
@31 Because the Eagles are a joke and no one I knew expected them to win.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124511558996917441.html
If you want more evidence of how dumb baseball players are as a group, only 26 MLB players or managers have a 4 year degree. Not to say that that’s the only measure of intelligence, but come on.
The thing is, when you see a team like the Giants win it all, that really could be us next year.
@32 Oakland beat Texas for division title this year and Washington won their division too. The other leagues do not have good minor league systems to develop players and most good college players sign after 3 years of college for the money. College baseball players can play in summer leagues like Cape Cod league while College football and basketball players go to summer scool to work out with team mates while earning college credits so they only have take 12 hours in season.
New thread.