For a guy who makes the postseason every year, Leo Mazzone can become a little annoyed watching the games.
Mazzone, the Braves’ renowned pitching coach, can handle the bloated time for commercials, the countless glove tugs and pensive resin-bag bounces. But when it comes to all the times a reliever trots in to face just one hitter before leaving for yet another, he, like many others, gets a little fidgety.
“I think all that matchup stuff is overrated,” Mazzone said. “Just go ahead and pitch.”
Alas, one-and-done relievers are a part of the modern game and will surely reassert their importance in the playoffs. Managers will check the stat sheets, fans will check their watches and we will all check the box scores to see if the shenanigans were worth it.
They probably will be. As tedious as the tinkering can be, one-batter relievers generally thrive, leading to even greater use.
No manager is more linked with this strategy than Tony La Russa, has used his St. Louis relievers for just one batter 64 times this season, the most in the majors, according to Sports Team Analysis Tracking Systems, known as Stats. Almost half of those appearances went to the left-hander Ray King, who specializes in facing southpaws.
It is hard to argue with La Russa’s judgment. The Cardinals got 57 outs in those 64 matchups, for an 89.1 percent conversion rate.
“If you believe that getting that out in the seventh is critical to you having a chance to win in the ninth, sometimes you make a move for one hitter to face one pitcher,” La Russa said. “You have convinced yourself that by getting this out, we have a better chance to win. If we don’t get this out, we won’t be in position later.”
Most contenders have a reliever who specializes in one-batter duty. The Red Sox have left-hander Mike Myers, who led the American League with 25 such appearances. He has faced a single batter 257 times in his career, the most in major-league history, according to Retrosheet. Despite Mazzone’s distaste for the strategy, the Braves have used lefty John Foster to face one batter 18 times.
“I’m basically a pitcher who pitches at-bats, not innings,” Foster said. “If I get eight out of 10 batters out, that’s pretty good.”
Relievers were used for just one batter 1,013 times this season, about the norm for the last five years, according to Stats. Most of them are left-handers, and their brief but vital role leaves them likened to field-goal kickers. Or worse: The statistics community has come to call each of them a Loogy, short for Lefty One Out Guy.
The one-batter strategy usually works because such relievers are saved for the single batter they should be the most effective facing. This season they yielded a cumulative .170 batting average and a .282 slugging percentage, both remarkably low. In 2004, they were even lower, .131 and .209.
Some managers do not use the strategy much, like the Angels’ Mike Scioscia (16 times this season) and the Padres’ Bruce Bochy (19). But Bochy does scratch the itch vigorously at times. In a tight game two years ago, he changed pitchers after each of four consecutive batters.
This is a relatively recent phenomenon. As relievers began their rise to prominence, from 1960 to 1980, only one in five games had a pitcher last just one batter. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, they began appearing twice as often. In last year’s playoffs, single-batter relievers were used 25 times in 34 games.
La Russa did play a role in the shift, but not as much as some believe. All of baseball watched him mix and match his Oakland A’s bullpen on the way to four division titles from 1988-92. He was always near the top in the number of times he changed pitchers after one batter, but other managers did it more, just not as successfully.
When the Yankees’ Joe Torre uses a reliever for one batter, it is usually because that reliever fails, so he removes him. In 70 single-batter pitching appearances, his pitchers recorded just 41 outs the last two years. That’s a 59 percent conversion rate, last in the majors.
Like most managers, Torre makes more pitching changes today in large part because increasingly sophisticated data show each reliever’s performance against specific hitters or even which types of hitters. What once were considered “gut” maneuvers have been replaced by scientific statistical matchups that proceed one batter at a time.
“You stat yourself to death,” Torre said. “If it wasn’t for having the stats at your disposal,” relievers might be used for longer periods.
But with the heightened importance of every at-bat in the playoffs, make way for the loogies.
