Home Runs vs. Saves (Met Leaders, That Is)

[G-Fafif]

Last night, Pete Alonso clinched a title that hadn't been in doubt for months, winning the 2019 championship in the perennial Mets Savers vs. Sluggers battle. Thirty-nine times in 58 seasons, the Mets' leading slugger has had more home runs than the Mets' leading closer has had saves, whereas 18 times, the advantage has gone to the saver. One time it was a tie.



Why yes, you can read http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2019/09/10/home-runs-will-save-us/more about it here.

Edited September 10, 2019 by Guest

[batmagadanleadoff]

Last night, Pete Alonso clinched a title that hadn't been in doubt for months, winning 2019 championship in the perennial Mets Savers vs. Sluggers battle. Thirty-nine times in 58 seasons, the Mets' leading slugger has had more home runs than the Mets' leading closer has had saves, whereas 18 times, the advantage has gone to the saver. One time it was a tie. Why yes, you can read http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2019/09/10/home-runs-will-save-us/more about it here.

That 1962 Frank Thomas over Craig Anderson record looks unbeatable, at least to me, anyways. For a second, I thought that you personally calculated every retroactive save from before it was made into an official statistic to write that piece and so I said to myself: "No, he didn't (Even though I'm pretty sure he would if he had to - that's dedication)." So I went to BRef to check on this and I saw that BRef has saves stats for the pre-save era. Very enjoyable read.



OE: Wait a second. It's not so far-fetched that Alonso might break that Frank Thomas record this year, as you point out. I should've finished the article before I wrote this post, but I hadda go to BRef to check out retroactive saves and got thrown off the pace a bit. If Alonso breaks that record, you gotta use your connections to get that record in next year's Mets media guide.

[batmagadanleadoff]

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=21426 time=1568136815 user_id=68]


OE: ... If Alonso breaks that record, you gotta use your connections to get that record in next year's Mets media guide.

[G-Fafif]

Gary Cohen keeps endorsing the idea of an entirely new record book to accommodate Alonso's records.



Glad you enjoyed the article. I just added a link to a pretty good SI story from earlier this year on the history of the save:



https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/06/04/mariano-rivera-yankees-closers-saveshttps://www.si.com/mlb/2019/06/04/mariano-rivera-yankees-closers-saves



Those firemen we revered in our youth apparently weren't sold on the stat from the start.

[G-Fafif]

HR vs SV: Greatest Slugger Advantage

1962: +30 -- Thomas 34 vs Anderson 4

2019: +25 -- ALONSO 50 vs Diaz 25 (through 153 games)

1993: +24 -- Bonilla 34 vs Franco 10

1975: +23 -- Kingman 36 vs Apodaca 13

1976: +18 -- Kingman 37 vs Lockwood 19

1982: +18 -- Kingman 37 vs Allen 19

1999: +18 -- Piazza 40 vs Benitez 22

1965: +16 -- Swoboda 19 vs Ribant 3

1974: +16 -- Milner 20 vs Parker 4

1964: +15 -- Smith 20 vs Hunter 5

1985: +15 -- Carter 32 vs McDowell/Orosco 17

Edited September 21, 2019 by Guest

[G-Fafif]

SV vs HR: Greatest Saver Advantage

2009: +23 -- Rodriguez 35 vs Murphy 12

2016: +20 -- Familia 51 vs Cespedes 31

2015: +16 -- Familia 43 vs Duda 27

1998: +15 -- Franco 38 vs Piazza 23

1972: +10 -- McGraw 27 vs Milner 17

1994: +10 -- Franco 30 vs Bonilla 20

1977: +8 -- Lockwood 20 vs Henderson/Milner/Stearns 12

2011: +8 -- Rodriguez 23 vs Beltran 15

1995: +7 -- Franco 29 vs Brogna 22

1980: +6 -- Allen 22 vs Mazzilli 16

1997: +6 -- Franco 36 vs Hundley 30

[G-Fafif]

For the first time since 2001, the Mets single-season home run record is greater than the Mets single-season save record: 52 for Alonso in 2019 vs 51 for Familia in 2016.