{"id":1745,"date":"2021-09-28T09:03:05","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T14:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/?p=1745"},"modified":"2021-09-28T09:03:05","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T14:03:05","slug":"twiwbl-special-edition-all-star-preview-ii-nl-relievers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/2021\/09\/28\/twiwbl-special-edition-all-star-preview-ii-nl-relievers\/","title":{"rendered":"TWIWBL Special Edition: All Star Preview II – NL Relievers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

{ With under three weeks until the All Star Teams are announced, we’re looking at what’s changed since our original previews. }<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Preview I here<\/a>, which selected Johan Santana<\/strong>, Terry Adams<\/strong>, Aroldis Chapman<\/strong>, Rheal Cormier<\/strong>, and Rob Dibble<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portland’s Santana continues to be a lock, leading the league with 17 saves to go along with a 3.00 ERA and a 1-1 record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after him, all of the closers have some question marks. San Francisco’s Rod Beck<\/strong> has 11 saves in only 11 innings to go along with a microscopic 0.82 ERA and an even more impressive 0.45 WHIP. So the question there is if he can maintain that level of performance. The same question remains for Miami’s Chapman–yet to allow a run in 13 innings, with 9 saves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philadelphia’s Bob Howry <\/strong>and Cleveland’s Adams both have the saves (14 and 12, respectively), but Howry has an ERA of 4.58 and Adams a WHIP of 1.71.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooklyn’s Watty Clark <\/strong>may be the best candidate behind Santana, sitting at 3-1 with 10 saves, a 2.04 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After those closers you would have to consider Philadelphia’s duo of Ron Reed<\/strong>, who continues to be excellent, with 11 holds and a 2.83 ERA and Cormier, 4-0 with 4 holds and a 2.64 ERA. Brooklyn’s Eric Gagne <\/strong>(6 holds, 2.74 ERA, 1.00 WHIP) and San Francisco’s Ken Howell<\/strong> (1.61 ERA and 1.03 WHIP) have forced themselves into the conversation as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bullpens are deep here: Dibble is still pitching well for Indianapolis, and the New York Black Yankees’ Ralph Citarella <\/strong>and San Francisco’s Charlie Root <\/strong>have pitched themselves into the conversation as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AI goes with Cormier, Reed, Howell, and Birmingham’s Hoyt Wilhelm<\/strong> (2.59 ERA in 18 appearances).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would go with Santana, Chapman, Robinson, Clark, and Howell. I think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{ With under three weeks until the All Star Teams are announced, we’re looking at what’s changed since our original previews. } Preview I here, which selected Johan Santana, Terry Adams, Aroldis Chapman, Rheal Cormier, and Rob Dibble. Portland’s Santana continues to be a lock, leading the league with 17 saves to go along with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1000],"tags":[217,150,745,799,431,585,387,544,739,788,386,148,365,442],"class_list":["post-1745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-star-games","tag-aroldis-chapman","tag-bob-howry","tag-charlie-root","tag-eric-gagne","tag-hoyt-wilhelm","tag-johan-santana","tag-ken-howell","tag-ralph-citarella","tag-rheal-cormier","tag-rob-dibble","tag-rod-beck","tag-ron-reed","tag-terry-adams","tag-watty-clark"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1745"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1903,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1745\/revisions\/1903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbl.dmlco.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}