Relievers Shoot for 40 Saves

Baseball used to be a game dominated by its starting pitchers. Dizzy Dean, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn. A manager could hand the ball to a Sandy Koufax and Denny McLain in the 1960s or a Steve Carlton and Ron Guidry in the 1970s and give the bullpen the night off.

The aces would get their innings, they’d get their complete games and they’d get their 20 wins. It was automatic. And the great ones didn’t stop there: McLain won 31 games in 1968, Carlton won 27 games in 1972, Koufax 27 in 1966 and Guidry 25 in 1978. Starting pitching won pennants back then.

But the nature of pitching has changed. It’s no longer who starts that counts--it’s who finishes.

The breakthrough came in 1973. John Hiller saved 38 games for the Detroit Tigers while, over in the other league, Mike Marshall was asked to appear in 92 of Montreal’s 162 games that summer. Both performances were records.

Marshall appeared in 106 games and won the Cy Young Award for the Los Angeles Dodgers the following year and Sparky Lyle broke ground for American League relievers in 1977 when he won the same award for the New York Yankees. Relievers Bruce Sutter, Rollie Fingers and Willie Hernandez have since won Cy Young Awards.

The Detroit Tigers played 1,464 innings of baseball in 1984 and Hernandez appeared in just a small fraction of them--140--yet he was voted the American League’s Most Valuable Player. He appeared in 80 games, winning nine of them and saving 32 others for the world champions.

Dan Quisenberry figured in 60 percent of Kansas City’s wins a year ago. He appeared in 72 games, winning nine and saving 44 others for the Western Division champions. He has finished as the runner-up in the Cy Young balloting each of the last two seasons.

“Baseball has been evolving toward the relief pitcher over the last few years,” Quisenberry said. “Starters are only expected to go seven or eight innings now.

“I think Gene Mauch was responsible for it. Back in my first year in 1979 when Mike Marshall was with the Twins, no matter how the starting pitcher was doing, Mauch would have him (Marshall) pitch the ninth. He changed the philosophy. Relief pitchers would start an inning; a starting pitcher didn’t even have to be in trouble.

“I remember in 1979 I thought 20 saves was a really good year. Dan Stanhouse had 24 or 26 for Baltimore that year and I remember being really impressed. Jim Kern led the league with something like 29. Getting into the 30s ... that would have been a tremendous year. But Hiller’s record doesn’t seem so fantastic any more. I expect somebody to be at or beyond that mark every season, probably one in each league.”

In Quisenberry’s first full big-league season in 1980, the right-handed sinkerballer led the league with 33 saves and the Royals won the pennant. He saved 35 games in 1982 and broke Hiller’s record with 45 saves in 1983. Quisenberry followed with his 44-save season in 1984.

Sutter tied Quisenberry’s record with 45 saves for the St. Louis Cardinals last season. Bill Caudill had 36 saves for the Oakland A’s, Lee Smith had 33 saves for the Chicago Cubs and Dave Righetti 31 saves for the New York Yankees in 1984. And Caudill has moved to a better team in 1985 -- the Toronto Blue Jays.

“Two years ago I couldn’t imagine anyone getting 40 saves,” Quisenberry said. “I thought 1983 was a strange year when I got those 45 saves. I didn’t know if anybody would get that many opportunities again. But Sutter and myself have both done it since then. Most relief pitchers think 30 (saves) is the par for excellence. Even in 1984 I felt if I got 30-plus saves that would be a good year.

“Now the precedent is 40. That’s what I’m shooting for and I think Sutter, Caudill and Hernandez are probably all thinking 40 this year, too. Caudill’s got to think he’s going to get that close with Toronto’s offense. Hernandez can pitch every day and he knows he’s going to get the ball from Sparky (Detroit manager Anderson). Detroit has good starting pitchers and a tremendous offense. He’s going to get that chance (for 40).”

------------------ upi 04-08-85 09:43 aps