Runs Saved by Tigers Pitchers

Yesterday, I looked at Support Neutral Wins (SNW) and Winning Percentage (SNPCT) as ways to rank the all-time best Tigers pitchers. SNW says more about pitcher longevity while SNPCT is a measure of excellence. Another statistic which combines longevity with excellence is runs saved above average (RSAA). RSAA is the number of runs saved by a pitcher over an average pitcher's run allowed. It was created by Lee Sinnis and is similar to Pete Palmer's Pitching Runs which is calculated as follows:

(Lge Runs Allowed/9 IP - Runs Allowed/9 IP)*IP

How well this statistic balances longevity with excellence depends on which one you value more but it's considered by many analysts to be a reasonable measure for comparing pitchers across eras. The Top 20 Tigers pitchers of all-time in terms of RSAA are listed in the table below. Leading the pack are Tommy Bridges and Hal Newhouser, each with 301 runs saved above average.

The data for this analysis were extracted from the Lee Sinnis Complete Baseball Encyclopedia.



Table 1: Career Runs Saved by Tigers Pitchers

Pitcher	IP	RSAA
Tommy Bridges	2826	301
Hal Newhouser	2944	301
Dizzy Trout	2592	239
John Hiller	1242	136
Jim Bunning	1867	122
Frank Lary	2008	116
Virgil Trucks	1802	105
Al Benton	1219	104
Jack Morris	3042	100
Schoolboy Rowe	1444	92
Fred Hutchinson	1465	85
Dave Rozema	1007	79
Ed Siever	1036	73
Hank Aguirre	1180	70
Harry Coveleski	1023	68
Mickey Lolich	3363	63
Wild Bill Donovan	2137	61
Denny McLain	1592	59
Earl Whitehill	2171	51
Dan Petry	1843	45