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Arizona Diamondbacks All-Time Top 50: Relief pitcher candidates

Time to pick the final entrants in the top 50

By Jim McLennan
Pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim

We move on, in our project to crowd-source the top 50 all-time players for the Arizona Diamondbacks, as they completed the franchise’s first two decades. This is the final batch, with the position players and starting pitchers already having been selected. We therefore finish with the bullpen. Just so we’re clear, these are defined as all pitchers with at least twice as many relief appearances as starts. Below, you will find some selected statistics for the nineteen relief pitchers to have posted at least one bWAR as a Diamondback. However, the value and stats above are for ALL appearances, whether starting or relieving.

Diamondbacks relievers, 1998-2017

Rk Player WAR G IP H R ER BB SO ERA FIP ERA+
Rk Player WAR G IP H R ER BB SO ERA FIP ERA+
1 Byung-Hyun Kim 8.4 245 325.2 239 132 124 153 383 3.43 3.73 136
2 Brad Ziegler 7.3 348 335.2 279 107 93 105 218 2.49 3.37 161
3 Jose Valverde 5.6 253 260.0 194 105 95 111 331 3.29 3.40 141
4 Greg Swindell 4.1 225 227.1 214 98 95 54 180 3.76 4.30 124
5 Juan Cruz 3.7 141 207.1 159 90 80 110 246 3.47 3.86 136
6 Daniel Hudson 3.5 190 477.2 463 228 206 125 407 3.88 3.51 106
7 J.J. Putz 3.5 175 160.1 129 52 50 46 178 2.81 2.85 142
8 Mike Koplove 3.5 217 248.2 225 116 104 101 171 3.76 4.07 122
9 Matt Mantei 2.7 178 173.2 139 83 78 94 221 4.04 3.86 116
10 Andrew Chafin 2.4 172 163.0 139 68 66 70 157 3.64 3.31 120
11 Brandon Lyon 2.1 234 232.0 257 116 104 67 147 4.03 4.03 116
12 Gregg Olson 2.0 125 129.1 110 53 48 50 100 3.34 4.13 132
13 Brandon Medders 1.8 135 151.0 144 70 59 66 109 3.52 4.67 133
14 Oscar Villarreal 1.7 114 129.2 116 62 50 59 102 3.47 4.04 134
15 Randall Delgado 1.6 236 403.2 387 201 185 141 366 4.12 4.04 101
16 Tony Pena 1.5 209 222.2 220 115 101 67 162 4.08 4.02 115
17 David Hernandez 1.4 274 252.1 199 109 102 88 289 3.64 3.41 112
18 Luis Vizcaino 1.4 70 65.1 51 26 26 29 72 3.58 4.05 132
19 Doug Slaten 1.1 126 80.2 87 40 33 31 55 3.68 4.57 129

Below, you’ll find a link to a Google form, listing the players, and for this stage, a straight yes/no question: should they be included in the all-time top 50? The 8 who receive the highest percentage of votes will proceed on to the second, ranking stage. [#9 may be included as a wild-card, if he gets a higher percentage than the top non-qualifying starter] You shouldn’t worry too much about voting yes for exactly 8. It would make sense to approve about half of them, but if you have 7 or 9, I’m not going to disqualify you. To prevent ballot-box stuffing - for example by douchebag Dodger fans (not that such a thing could possibly exist) - a username is requested, but as long as your ballot makes sense, I’m not going to agonize if you don’t provide one.

It’s entirely up to you on what criteria you judge whether or not a player should advance, and what process you adopt. Personally, I’d do three sweeps and triage the candidates. The first would involve voting yes on the “obvious” qualifiers. The second, voting no on the obvious non-qualifiers. The final sweep will involve a more detailed look at the remaining candidates. The form lists the candidates in random order, so there should be no bias resulting from a player’s position on the list. I’ve also added a wild-card box, so you can write-in any other relief pitchers, not listed. Responses will close at 5pm on Thursday, with the results being published later that day.

Feel free to explain selections - especially for or against the candidates you consider to be borderline choices - in the comments below.

Link to Google Form

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