On this week’s Japan Baseball Weekly Podcast, John and I talked about how well Japan’s different relief corps have done, starting with the Yomiuri Giants, who have been without Scott Mathieson for most of the season, and have now come to terms with Rubby De La Rosa.
Starting today, I’m putting up the relief rankings. The basic rankings are free, the more detailed team-by-team breakdowns, of long relievers, middle relievers, later relievers and relievers in extra innings, are for jballallen.com subscribers.
Here’s the first table, the overall results of NPB teams’ relievers:
| League | Current Teams::Team R short | Relief Ps | Relief IP | Relief ERA | Relief Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | Tigers | 362 | 361 | 2.94 | 24-10-27-109 |
| CL | Carp | 336 | 376.67 | 3.42 | 18-13-14-76 |
| CL | Dragons | 352 | 358 | 3.49 | 14-19-28-92 |
| CL | BayStars | 388 | 411.67 | 3.69 | 16-16-25-95 |
| CL | Giants | 384 | 369.33 | 3.83 | 17-20-29-95 |
| CL | Swallows | 386 | 411.67 | 3.94 | 17-15-23-84 |
| PL | Hawks | 378 | 388.33 | 2.94 | 20-16-40-111 |
| PL | Eagles | 382 | 394.67 | 3.42 | 23-20-29-121 |
| PL | Marines | 366 | 381 | 3.43 | 22-19-22-92 |
| PL | Fighters | 431 | 485.33 | 3.49 | 18-18-30-119 |
| PL | Lions | 346 | 376 | 3.93 | 17-16-23-57 |
| PL | Buffaloes | 374 | 364 | 4.40 | 18-23-34-93 |
The other four tables can be found HERE. You’ll notice that as of June 24, the Hiroshima Carp have had superb middle relief, but have struggled in the late innings (a 1.47 WHIP, third worst in NPB and a .311 2OPS, ninth worst in NPB — although their 2.08 ERA is third best among all team’s late relievers.
