lhslep134;1600467 wrote:I also think you have to look at relievers with a grain of salt because 3 or 4 utterly terrible performances can make the difference between a 2.95 and 3.30 FIP when you have such a smaller sample size of innings.
I never thought Joe Smith was great, but I think he may have been perceived to be better than he was because we had no elite bullpen pitchers to make him look worse.
That makes sense. After looking at Johnson's numbers from last year more closely, that probably happened to him to some degree (less than some guys because, as a closer, he pitched more times and more innings than many pen guys) because he had a couple of those horrid "less than one inning, 4-5 runs" outings that just destroy a guy statwise for a long time.
And I can see what you're saying about Smith. With Perez melting down badly and Pestano being a step back of where he was previously, he probably looked better than he really was, just by comparison.