Tigers Bullpen Among Best in League Over Past Month

The Tigers are continuing their battle to reach the .500 mark, but one facet of the team that seems to be improving is the bullpen.  Earlier in the season, they struggled a lot with closer Jose Valverde getting off to a poor start and too many innings being pitched by young hurlers not belonging in the majors.

Valverde still hasn't completely turned his season around, but the rest of the bullpen is shaping up well.  Setup man Joaquin Benoit has been excellent all season, Octavio Dotel has returned from an injury and the Tigers are getting great work from youngsters such as Duane Below and Brayan Villarreal.

Earlier in the year, I introduced the Batting Runs Above Average by the 24 Base/Out States (RE24) statistic for batters and pitchers.  This metric is useful for relievers because it takes into account situational pitching.  This is, of course, particularly important for relievers because they often enter games with runners on base.

The Tigers relievers have a combined RE24 of 11.2 for the season which means their bullpen has saved the team an estimated 11.2 runs compared to average pitchers in the same situations.  Keep in mind that average here is not "average reliever" but "average pitcher".  The average reliever typically has better statistics than the average starter because he usually only pitches about an inning at a time.  So, you would expect more relief staffs to have a positive numbers than a negative number here.  As it turns out, 11.2 is only ninth best in the league.

Table 1 below shows that Below is fourth in the league with 11.8 RE24 all by himself and Benoit is 11th at 10.3.  Based on that, you would guess that they have several pitchers with negative numbers for RE24.  Fortunately, most of those pitchers (e.g. Daniel Schlereth -8.1, Collin Balester 6.2) are no longer with the team.  The only current reliever with a negative RE24 is Valverde with -1.3.

Table 1: RE24 Leaders - AL Relievers, 2012

Pitcher	Team	RE24
Atchison	Bos	15.2
Ross	Tex	14.8
Strop	Bal	12.9
Below	Det	11.8
Johnson	Bal	11.8
Pestano	Cle	11.3
Rodney	TB	11.3
Cook	Oak	10.8
Duensing	Min	10.6
Nathan	Tex	10.6
Benoit	Det	10.3

Data Source: FanGraphs

In the the last 30 days, the Tigers bullpen has been one of the best in the league by any measure.  Specifically, their 17.1 RE24 is second in the AL to the Red Sox.  Table 2 below shows that Benoit (7.7) has been the best in the league and Below (5.7) ninth best during that span.  Villereal (4.0) has also been very good over the past month.

Table 2: RE24 Leaders - AL Relievers, Last 30 Days

Pitcher	Team	RE24
Benoit	Det	7.7
Villanueva	Tor	7.0
Wilhelmsen	Sea	6.7
Atchison	Bos	6.6
Furbush	Sea	6.4
Frieri	LA	6.4
Ross	Tex	5.7
Nathan	Tex	5.7
Below	Det	5.7
Balfour	Oak	5.6

Data Source: FanGraphs

So, the Tigers bullpen is looking good right now and there is no reason for it not to continue if everyone stays healthy.  Now, the just need to get their bats and gloves working!