I am going to start tracking an experiment. What if the only criteria you used was the effectiveness of the relief pitching?
So, what I will do is use a filter to see the relief pitching ERA of all the teams in MLB and take the top 5. Not sure what to do if some of them are playing each other.
KC at LAAngels KC +143
Milwaukee at St Louis St. Louis -109 Lost
White Sox at Baltimore White Sox +102
Houston at Philly Philly -165 Win
Texas at Toronto Toronto -182
If anyone has a suggestion for a better stat to use than ERA, let me know.
I read one site where the author likes GB%, K/9, BABIP, and BB/9 as indication of a good relief pitcher. I'm not sure where to get all those stats in an easy to use format. So, I am sticking with ERA for now.
One question I have, if anyone can answer this. Since the starting pitcher is responsible for the runners on base when he leaves the game, a relief pitcher could really suck and still have a good ERA. Is there any way to tell what the relief pitcher did to the starting pitcher's ERA in terms of did the relief pitcher let those inherited runners score?
For example, a relief pitcher could come into a game with 2 runners on base and 2 outs and let both runners score, then get the 3rd out. So, the official stats for the reliever are 1/3 IP and 0 earned runs. But, this pitcher sucks.
Okay, I found the stat, it is called Percent of Inherited Runners Stranded. Now I cannot find anyone who publishes the stat daily. Any ideas?