How were Gossage and Sutter used?

A break down by inning, as well as crucialness of situations

By Tangotiger

How were Goose Gossage and Bruce Sutter used? Would you believe less than half the batters they faced were in the 9th inning? 44% of the batters they faced were in the 9th inning, while 42% were in the 8th inning or earlier.

Leveraged Index (LI) is a measure of the crucialness of the situation at hand, based on inning, score, base, and outs. The higher the number, the more impact that PA has on winning (more leverage). In the last 4 years, Trevor Hoffman, Robb Nen, and Mariano Rivera are the leaders with a figure of around 1.8 or so (and pitching almost exclusively in the 9th inning).

Now, look at our old-timers. Their LI in the 9th inning is comparable to our current crop of fireman. But look at Sutter especially. His managers had no problem finding equally crucial situations in the earlier innings. (Note all data is only as a reliever, 1974-1990, courtesy of Retrosheet.)

 

Inning	Gossage %PA	Sutter %PA	Gossage LI	Sutter LI
<7	6	1	1.11	0.70
7	10	6	1.49	1.90
8	29	32	1.60	1.84
9	41	47	1.75	1.84
>9	14	14	2.35	2.31
Total	100	100	1.73	1.9

This following table is only for selected years: Sutter (1977-1985), Gossage (1975, 77, 78, 82-86)

 

Inning	Gossage %PA	Sutter %PA	Gossage LI	Sutter LI
<8	12	6	1.72	2.17
8	30	32	1.73	1.87
9	43	48	1.79	1.87
>9	15	14	2.39	2.38
Total	100	100	1.85	1.96

The change in pattern is not when in the 9th to bring them in (still done about the same way in terms of quantity and crucialness), but whether to bring them in at all before the 9th (workload in these innings reduced drastically).