It's common knowledge that the Yankees do not use Mariano Rivera in the same way that the Athletics used Rollie Fingers back in the day. Just how different are the ways that closers have been used through the years?
This is intended to be simply a gathering of information - I don't really have any conclusions or analysis to pass along. I just thought it would be useful to assemble the data. I went through the Game Logs of the top 100 pitchers on the all-time saves leaderboard. That includes everyone with at least 115 career saves, and it scoops up almost everyone of interest.
There are four other relievers I've added because of their historical importance although each had fewer than 115 saves. Almost all of their work was done before 1950 - Fred Marberry, Johnny Murphy, Hugh Casey, and Joe Page. Actual Game Logs are spotty in these cases, but between retrosheet and baseball-reference.com we actually have both Marberry (active mostly in the 1920s) and Murphy (active in the 1930s) covered.
We can only assemble partial records for Page and Casey, who had their biggest years in the 1940s - both men did their work in New York City and they were extremely impressive to watch. Page only had four years as a relief ace - in sequence, those years were brilliant, ordinary, brilliant, and ordinary. We're missing the last two (1949-50), which includes both his best season (1949) and the two years he worked for Casey Stengel. Page had 76 career saves, and we only have a game log for 40 of them.
Hugh Casey is best remembered for throwing the pitch that got past Mickey Owen for a passed ball in the 1941 World Series. Who knows why? His career was split up by the war, and he only had two seasons with more than 10 saves. We're missing one of them (1942), but we can account for 32 of his 55 total.
As you probably know, the save only became an official statistic in 1969 - all saves credited prior to that were done by people going back through Game Logs. Where they would, inevitably, encounter some very strange things. On July 19 1940, Johnny Murphy replaced starter Lefty Gomez in the fourth inning, with the Yankees ahead by a 10-5 score. Murphy finished the game and was credited with the always unusual 5.1 inning save. What ya gonna do? Gomez had been credited with the W, despite getting knocked out in the fourth inning.
I've encountered some very strange things myself. I've decided to use the widely recognized official figures for career saves here, but It's quite apparent that a number of them - Fred Marberry, Don McMahon, Lindy McDaniel for sure - are simply wrong. A few months back, I mentioned some discoveries I had made regarding Fred Marberry's saves. There's lots more where that came from! For example: the official record gives Hoyt Wilhelm 27 saves in 1964, and that's what you'll find on his page at baseball-reference.com. But when you click the link to see Wilhelm's game logs for that season, you'll only find 23 saves. It appears, in fact, that the official record gave Wilhelm a save for every Chicago win that he happened to finish.
The same holds true, by the way, with respect to Marberry. He's still officially listed as having 11 saves in 1929, but the newly added game logs seem to confirm that he really saved just 9 games that year.
I've put those mysterious saves for Marberry and Wilhelm in the ? mark column - that is what it's for, after all.
Roy Face has 5 saves listed in his official totals that don't appear in the Game Logs (they appear here in the ? mark column.)
Don McMahon is generally listed as having saved 9 games in his rookie year of 1957, which seems quite impossible as he only finished 10 of the Braves victories and he was the winning pitcher in 2 of them. He's also generally credited with having saved 16 games in 1964. The Game Logs can only find 15 - the only other possibility (his team won, he finished the game) is the game of 25 June 1964 - he came in to pitch the final two innings with a 6-1 lead. I'm putting both games in the ? column, but I'm not too pleased about either even counting.
Jim Brewer is generally credited with having saved 14 games in 1968, but his baseball-reference Game Log (their career totals page agrees with the 14 saves) lists 15 saves. One of them, however, is the game of 16 July 1968, when Brewer came in with an 8-1 lead, one out and one on. I'm deleting that one and going with the official 14.
We have a similar case with Jack Aker, generally recognized as having saved 11 games in 1968. The Game Logs list 12 saves - one of them was the game of 14 May 1968. Aker came in with a 13-8 lead and two runners aboard with one out in the eighth inning. I'm deleting that one and going with the official 11.
Lindy McDaniel accumulated 172 career saves, according to every reference source you might want to look at. But when you add them up from the Baseball-Reference Game Logs, you find actually 175 saves. Two of those, however, appear to be like the Brewer-Aker examples, with the Game Logs giving him for a save that the official record, correctly in my view, didn't give him. One of these came on 11 September 1960 (he came in with a 7-3 lead and just one runner aboard); the other on 14 April 1964 (he came in with an 8-4 lead, none out, one runner aboard.) However a McDaniel save that genuinely appears to have been overlooked came on 21 June 1959 - he came in to the game with a 5-1 lead and two runners on base, so the tying run was on deck. His career total should probably be 173...
Heaven only knows what else could be uncovered... I only found these ones because the total from the Game Log didn't match the total on the player's home page, and I was trying to figure out why.
The pitchers are arranged in chronological order, dating from when they made their ML debut, with two obvious exceptions: Dennis Eckersley and John Smoltz both had more than ten years as starters before becoming full-time relievers, and I've moved them accordingly. Could have done the same thing with Dave Righetti, I suppose. I've grouped them more or less by the decade they started their relief careers. I assume the columns are pretty obvious - we get the number of career saves that required one, two outs, and so on all the way up to 19 outs (Fred Marberry, 17 June 1924 - he relieved Tom Zachary with an 8-4 lead in the third inning and went the rest of the way. They gave Zachary the win).) After that comes total saves, total outs required in those saves, and the average number of outs required per saves. I then just grouped the data from the first bunch of columns to more or less represent how many innings the pitcher was required to pitch in, and expressed the results as a percentage of the pitcher's career saves.
As you can see, the-one-inning-or-less save, which accounts for more than 90% of Trevor Hoffman's career saves, generally accounts for less than half of the saves of the early relievers. Roy Face is the only early exception, and two men who also worked as situational lefties (Tippy Martinez and Jesse Orosco) accounted for slightly more than half their saves this way. It doesn't begin to become a trend until we get into the relievers emerging in the early and mid 1980s: Jeff Reardon, the Smith brothers (Lee and Dave) and so on.
Lee Smith is still ahead of Hoffman - barely - in most outs recorded in the process of collecting his saves. And the man who averaged the most number of outs per save was... Bill Campbell, one of the very few relief pitchers ever to qualify for the ERA title (167.2 IPT for Gene Mauch in 1976.)
This is intended to be simply a gathering of information - I don't really have any conclusions or analysis to pass along. I just thought it would be useful to assemble the data. I went through the Game Logs of the top 100 pitchers on the all-time saves leaderboard. That includes everyone with at least 115 career saves, and it scoops up almost everyone of interest.
There are four other relievers I've added because of their historical importance although each had fewer than 115 saves. Almost all of their work was done before 1950 - Fred Marberry, Johnny Murphy, Hugh Casey, and Joe Page. Actual Game Logs are spotty in these cases, but between retrosheet and baseball-reference.com we actually have both Marberry (active mostly in the 1920s) and Murphy (active in the 1930s) covered.
We can only assemble partial records for Page and Casey, who had their biggest years in the 1940s - both men did their work in New York City and they were extremely impressive to watch. Page only had four years as a relief ace - in sequence, those years were brilliant, ordinary, brilliant, and ordinary. We're missing the last two (1949-50), which includes both his best season (1949) and the two years he worked for Casey Stengel. Page had 76 career saves, and we only have a game log for 40 of them.
Hugh Casey is best remembered for throwing the pitch that got past Mickey Owen for a passed ball in the 1941 World Series. Who knows why? His career was split up by the war, and he only had two seasons with more than 10 saves. We're missing one of them (1942), but we can account for 32 of his 55 total.
As you probably know, the save only became an official statistic in 1969 - all saves credited prior to that were done by people going back through Game Logs. Where they would, inevitably, encounter some very strange things. On July 19 1940, Johnny Murphy replaced starter Lefty Gomez in the fourth inning, with the Yankees ahead by a 10-5 score. Murphy finished the game and was credited with the always unusual 5.1 inning save. What ya gonna do? Gomez had been credited with the W, despite getting knocked out in the fourth inning.
I've encountered some very strange things myself. I've decided to use the widely recognized official figures for career saves here, but It's quite apparent that a number of them - Fred Marberry, Don McMahon, Lindy McDaniel for sure - are simply wrong. A few months back, I mentioned some discoveries I had made regarding Fred Marberry's saves. There's lots more where that came from! For example: the official record gives Hoyt Wilhelm 27 saves in 1964, and that's what you'll find on his page at baseball-reference.com. But when you click the link to see Wilhelm's game logs for that season, you'll only find 23 saves. It appears, in fact, that the official record gave Wilhelm a save for every Chicago win that he happened to finish.
The same holds true, by the way, with respect to Marberry. He's still officially listed as having 11 saves in 1929, but the newly added game logs seem to confirm that he really saved just 9 games that year.
I've put those mysterious saves for Marberry and Wilhelm in the ? mark column - that is what it's for, after all.
Roy Face has 5 saves listed in his official totals that don't appear in the Game Logs (they appear here in the ? mark column.)
Don McMahon is generally listed as having saved 9 games in his rookie year of 1957, which seems quite impossible as he only finished 10 of the Braves victories and he was the winning pitcher in 2 of them. He's also generally credited with having saved 16 games in 1964. The Game Logs can only find 15 - the only other possibility (his team won, he finished the game) is the game of 25 June 1964 - he came in to pitch the final two innings with a 6-1 lead. I'm putting both games in the ? column, but I'm not too pleased about either even counting.
Jim Brewer is generally credited with having saved 14 games in 1968, but his baseball-reference Game Log (their career totals page agrees with the 14 saves) lists 15 saves. One of them, however, is the game of 16 July 1968, when Brewer came in with an 8-1 lead, one out and one on. I'm deleting that one and going with the official 14.
We have a similar case with Jack Aker, generally recognized as having saved 11 games in 1968. The Game Logs list 12 saves - one of them was the game of 14 May 1968. Aker came in with a 13-8 lead and two runners aboard with one out in the eighth inning. I'm deleting that one and going with the official 11.
Lindy McDaniel accumulated 172 career saves, according to every reference source you might want to look at. But when you add them up from the Baseball-Reference Game Logs, you find actually 175 saves. Two of those, however, appear to be like the Brewer-Aker examples, with the Game Logs giving him for a save that the official record, correctly in my view, didn't give him. One of these came on 11 September 1960 (he came in with a 7-3 lead and just one runner aboard); the other on 14 April 1964 (he came in with an 8-4 lead, none out, one runner aboard.) However a McDaniel save that genuinely appears to have been overlooked came on 21 June 1959 - he came in to the game with a 5-1 lead and two runners on base, so the tying run was on deck. His career total should probably be 173...
Heaven only knows what else could be uncovered... I only found these ones because the total from the Game Log didn't match the total on the player's home page, and I was trying to figure out why.
The pitchers are arranged in chronological order, dating from when they made their ML debut, with two obvious exceptions: Dennis Eckersley and John Smoltz both had more than ten years as starters before becoming full-time relievers, and I've moved them accordingly. Could have done the same thing with Dave Righetti, I suppose. I've grouped them more or less by the decade they started their relief careers. I assume the columns are pretty obvious - we get the number of career saves that required one, two outs, and so on all the way up to 19 outs (Fred Marberry, 17 June 1924 - he relieved Tom Zachary with an 8-4 lead in the third inning and went the rest of the way. They gave Zachary the win).) After that comes total saves, total outs required in those saves, and the average number of outs required per saves. I then just grouped the data from the first bunch of columns to more or less represent how many innings the pitcher was required to pitch in, and expressed the results as a percentage of the pitcher's career saves.
TOTAL Outs Required (% of career)Obviously, there isn't space to provide the yearly breakdowns for everyone - it took some doing just getting the career totals to fit...
Pitcher 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ? SAVES Outs Out/SV 0-3 4-6 7-9 10-12 13+
Marberry 11 15 13 7 11 10 4 7 9 1 0 6 2 0 1 0 1 0 1 2 101 547 5.53 39.4 28.3 20.2 7.1 5.0
Murphy 8 8 28 8 10 21 2 1 9 5 1 5 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 107 556 5.20 41.1 36.4 11.2 10.3 0.9
Casey 3 1 10 3 2 3 3 4 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 23 55 158 4.94 43.8 25.0 28.1 3.1 0.0
Page 6 3 3 6 2 5 1 1 3 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 40 76 192 5.33 33.3 36.1 13.9 16.7 0.0
Miller 10 7 28 17 16 42 4 7 12 4 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 150 778 5.19 30.0 50.0 15.3 4.0 0.7
Wilhelm 11 24 44 14 17 39 11 10 38 5 4 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 227 1231 5.52 35.4 31.4 26.5 6.7 0.0
Face 24 24 58 13 20 26 5 9 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 193 724 3.95 56.4 31.4 12.2 0.0 0.0
Abernathy 14 17 28 6 23 30 11 5 8 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 144 660 4.58 41.0 41.0 16.7 1.4 0.0
McDaniel 17 23 34 12 11 23 15 8 14 5 5 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 172 867 5.04 43.0 26.7 21.5 8.1 0.6
McMahon 19 15 36 14 5 34 5 7 12 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 153 685 4.54 46.4 35.1 15.9 2.6 0.0
Brewer 12 12 36 11 13 23 9 8 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 132 591 4.48 45.5 35.6 18.2 0.8 0.0
Perranoski 14 14 42 19 12 37 11 7 10 2 3 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 178 886 4.98 39.3 38.2 15.7 6.7 0.0
Giusti 18 18 27 15 9 28 2 5 19 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 145 681 4.70 43.4 35.9 17.9 2.1 0.7
Radatz 5 10 17 10 14 22 5 15 10 4 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 117 658 5.62 27.4 39.3 25.6 7.7 0.0
Aker 10 13 28 5 13 16 12 6 14 2 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 123 625 5.08 41.5 27.6 26.0 4.9 0.0
Carroll 11 17 35 8 18 19 5 5 8 3 3 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 143 728 5.09 44.1 31.5 12.6 11.9 0.0
Hiller 12 10 22 11 15 15 4 7 20 7 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 125 663 5.30 35.2 32.8 24.8 7.2 0.0
Knowles 13 16 27 15 14 20 9 6 15 1 2 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 143 714 4.99 39.2 34.3 21.0 5.6 0.0
McGraw 13 11 52 11 14 36 7 5 26 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 180 898 4.99 42.2 33.9 21.1 2.8 0.0
Lyle 31 28 47 24 18 35 16 8 16 5 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 239 1116 4.67 44.4 32.2 16.7 6.7 0.0
Marshall 9 11 42 17 15 38 8 9 26 4 4 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 188 1034 5.50 33.0 37.2 22.9 6.9 0.0
Fingers 38 20 81 30 37 61 20 18 16 3 5 12 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 341 1649 4.84 40.8 37.5 15.8 5.9 0.0
Garber 15 19 57 11 9 43 6 6 38 5 2 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 224 1231 5.50 40.6 28.1 22.3 8.9 0.0
LaRoche 13 20 21 16 11 19 4 7 10 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 126 579 4.60 42.9 36.5 16.7 4.0 0.0
Forster 12 15 25 10 11 15 10 7 12 2 2 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 127 650 5.12 40.9 28.3 22.8 7.9 0.0
Gossage 24 23 70 33 35 73 16 12 16 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 309 1452 4.70 37.9 45.6 14.2 2.3 0.0
Campbell 12 14 17 9 8 17 6 6 26 2 3 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 126 718 5.70 34.1 27.0 30.2 8.7 0.0
Lavelle 15 19 33 7 10 16 5 3 19 3 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 136 658 4.84 49.3 24.3 19.9 6.6 0.0
Martinez 24 19 18 9 16 14 3 3 5 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 115 449 3.90 53.0 33.9 9.6 3.5 0.0
Tekulve 16 23 44 21 17 28 11 4 14 2 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 184 833 4.53 45.1 35.9 15.8 3.3 0.0
Minton 10 17 30 8 14 32 10 9 16 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 150 758 5.05 38.0 36.0 23.3 2.7 0.0
Sutter 19 11 79 25 33 87 21 10 14 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 300 1428 4.76 36.3 48.3 15.0 0.3 0.0
W.Hernandez 20 11 30 18 11 28 7 5 12 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 147 676 4.60 41.5 38.8 16.3 3.4 0.0
Stanley 5 20 23 9 10 17 5 6 20 6 7 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 132 750 5.68 36.4 27.3 23.5 12.9 0.0
R.Davis 9 18 28 22 10 23 3 4 8 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 130 582 4.48 42.3 42.3 11.5 3.8 0.0
Orosco 19 16 37 9 10 35 4 2 9 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 144 617 4.28 50.0 37.5 10.4 2.1 0.0
Quisenberry 12 20 52 25 15 55 15 14 31 2 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 244 1264 5.18 34.4 38.9 24.6 2.0 0.0
Reardon 34 28 153 39 33 54 8 5 10 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 367 1413 3.85 58.6 34.3 6.3 0.8 0.0
Righetti 18 18 108 27 25 39 10 1 4 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 252 981 3.89 57.1 36.1 6.0 0.8 0.0
D.Smith 17 12 115 16 13 24 2 0 10 2 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 216 842 3.90 66.7 24.5 5.6 3.2 0.0
Howell 8 10 56 18 12 45 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 155 644 4.15 47.7 48.4 3.9 0.0 0.0
L.Smith 25 23 260 47 29 79 5 2 7 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 478 1782 3.73 64.4 32.4 2.9 0.2 0.0
Bedrosian 15 10 54 18 11 58 2 5 6 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 184 836 4.54 42.9 47.3 7.1 2.7 0.0
D.Jones 16 26 155 25 19 41 13 3 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 303 1140 3.76 65.0 28.1 5.9 1.0 0.0
Henke 16 22 179 34 18 33 4 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 311 1092 3.51 69.8 27.3 2.9 0.0 0.0
Russell 14 20 101 23 14 9 1 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 186 620 3.33 72.6 24.7 1.6 1.1 0.0
Farr 9 15 86 5 2 5 2 2 4 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 132 447 3.39 83.3 9.1 6.1 1.5 0.0
Franco 24 19 291 30 23 28 3 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 424 1413 3.33 78.8 19.1 2.1 0.0 0.0
Aguilera 17 17 219 34 14 13 0 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 318 1032 3.25 79.6 19.2 0.6 0.6 0.0
McDowell 10 9 52 8 17 26 8 2 22 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 159 784 4.93 44.7 32.1 20.1 3.1 0.0
Myers 23 24 210 36 20 25 1 5 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 347 1169 3.37 74.1 23.3 2.6 0.0 0.0
Worrell 33 24 132 13 17 24 8 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 256 856 3.34 73.8 21.1 5.1 0.0 0.0
Jackson 13 9 84 10 7 7 5 2 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 142 501 3.53 74.6 16.9 7.0 1.4 0.0
Plesac 19 19 64 17 13 20 1 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 158 554 3.51 64.6 31.6 3.2 0.6 0.0
Thigpen 11 12 98 21 18 33 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 201 763 3.80 60.2 35.8 3.5 0.5 0.0
Ward 4 8 58 6 5 17 3 4 13 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 121 550 4.55 57.9 23.1 16.5 2.5 0.0
Mit.Williams 19 14 103 14 12 22 5 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 192 666 3.47 70.8 25.0 3.6 0.5 0.0
Harvey 6 13 94 24 20 19 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 177 631 3.56 63.8 35.6 0.6 0.0 0.0
Eckersley 24 28 232 43 35 23 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 390 1300 3.33 72.8 25.9 1.3 0.0 0.0
Henneman 14 17 82 23 14 33 5 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 193 733 3.80 58.5 36.3 5.2 0.0 0.0
Mesa 10 13 283 8 3 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 321 957 2.98 95.3 4.4 0.3 0.0 0.0
Montgomery 8 18 200 24 15 37 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 304 1051 3.46 74.3 25.0 0.7 0.0 0.0
Brantley 5 12 105 12 4 22 5 2 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 172 642 3.73 70.9 22.1 6.4 0.6 0.0
Gordon 9 7 117 12 5 6 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 158 499 3.16 84.2 14.6 1.3 0.0 0.0
Olson 19 11 140 16 13 16 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 217 705 3.25 78.3 20.7 0.5 0.5 0.0
Wetteland 16 16 226 34 20 16 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 330 1072 3.25 78.2 21.2 0.6 0.0 0.0
Rojas 7 4 58 20 8 17 2 4 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 126 511 4.06 54.8 35.7 9.5 0.0 0.0
Shaw 6 5 160 14 5 8 0 0 3 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 203 676 3.33 84.2 14.6 1.5 1.0 0.0
Beck 15 22 206 34 2 6 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 286 868 3.03 85.0 14.7 0.3 0.0 0.0
R.Hernandez 13 18 236 34 11 12 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 326 1035 3.17 81.9 17.5 0.6 0.0 0.0
Timlin 7 7 105 9 3 6 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 141 457 3.24 84.4 12.8 2.8 0.0 0.0
Wohlers 6 7 88 14 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 119 361 3.03 84.9 15.1 0.0 0.0 0.0
Wickman 7 4 237 7 5 4 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 267 827 3.10 92.9 6.0 0.7 0.4 0.0
Mik.Williams 8 11 118 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 144 417 2.90 95.1 4.9 0.0 0.0 0.0
Guardado 8 6 160 7 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 187 562 3.01 93.0 6.4 0.5 0.0 0.0
Hoffman 29 17 491 38 9 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 591 1778 3.01 90.9 8.8 0.3 0.0 0.0
Nen 5 11 264 18 10 5 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 314 980 3.12 89.2 10.5 0.3 0.0 0.0
T.Jones 15 7 264 19 4 7 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 319 985 3.09 89.7 9.4 0.9 0.0 0.0
Benitez 16 10 221 23 9 7 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 289 904 3.13 85.5 13.5 1.0 0.0 0.0
Bottalico 3 10 74 14 5 7 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 116 394 3.40 75.0 22.4 2.6 0.0 0.0
Borowski 6 5 118 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 131 379 2.89 98.5 1.5 0.0 0.0 0.0
Isringhausen 13 11 225 29 11 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 293 908 3.10 85.0 14.7 0.3 0.0 0.0
Percival 11 15 300 20 6 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 358 1087 3.04 91.1 8.9 0.0 0.0 0.0
Rivera 21 13 377 70 34 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 526 1695 3.22 78.1 21.7 0.2 0.0 0.0
Urbina 13 9 174 25 9 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 237 740 3.12 82.7 17.3 0.0 0.0 0.0
Wagner 7 9 334 24 7 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 385 1185 3.08 90.9 8.8 0.3 0.0 0.0
Graves 6 6 122 14 12 18 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 182 642 3.53 73.6 24.2 2.2 0.0 0.0
Alfonseca 5 1 111 8 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 129 395 3.06 90.7 9.3 0.0 0.0 0.0
Foulke 3 3 132 24 13 14 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 191 669 3.50 72.3 26.7 0.5 0.5 0.0
Cordero 13 7 203 16 6 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 250 763 3.05 89.2 10.0 0.8 0.0 0.0
Gagne 6 3 148 22 3 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 187 589 3.15 84.0 16.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Koch 6 5 126 12 4 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 163 522 3.20 84.0 16.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Nathan 7 5 224 9 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 247 736 2.98 95.5 4.5 0.0 0.0 0.0
Ryan 7 1 88 11 5 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 117 372 3.18 82.1 17.9 0.0 0.0 0.0
Sasaki 2 9 105 9 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 129 391 3.03 89.9 10.1 0.0 0.0 0.0
Fuentes 6 11 144 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 163 470 2.88 98.8 1.2 0.0 0.0 0.0
Smoltz 2 2 115 21 3 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 154 516 3.35 77.3 22.7 0.0 0.0 0.0
Lidge 7 5 171 5 4 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 195 588 3.02 93.8 6.2 0.0 0.0 0.0
Rodriguez 14 9 202 11 5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 243 720 2.96 92.6 7.0 0.4 0.0 0.0
Cordero 1 4 114 5 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 128 394 3.08 93.0 7.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Valverde 4 3 144 12 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 167 511 3.06 90.4 9.6 0.0 0.0 0.0
Jenks 5 6 125 8 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 146 435 2.98 93.2 6.8 0.0 0.0 0.0
Papelbon 5 3 115 24 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 151 473 3.13 81.5 18.5 0.0 0.0 0.0
Street 4 2 103 10 7 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 129 410 3.18 84.5 15.5 0.0 0.0 0.0
As you can see, the-one-inning-or-less save, which accounts for more than 90% of Trevor Hoffman's career saves, generally accounts for less than half of the saves of the early relievers. Roy Face is the only early exception, and two men who also worked as situational lefties (Tippy Martinez and Jesse Orosco) accounted for slightly more than half their saves this way. It doesn't begin to become a trend until we get into the relievers emerging in the early and mid 1980s: Jeff Reardon, the Smith brothers (Lee and Dave) and so on.
Lee Smith is still ahead of Hoffman - barely - in most outs recorded in the process of collecting his saves. And the man who averaged the most number of outs per save was... Bill Campbell, one of the very few relief pitchers ever to qualify for the ERA title (167.2 IPT for Gene Mauch in 1976.)
