Swing and Miss (Bullpen)

Bullpen usage has been extremely important to secure a win in modern baseball. We see many relievers are flamethrowers or they throw nasty pitches to cause swings and misses. I am curious about one thing. Which team’s relievers generate the most swings and misses?

Red Sox relievers posted a 5.79 ERA, but they created a 6.7% swing and miss rate and threw 308 strikeouts, leading the majors.

Tampa Bay Rays, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays each created a swing and miss rate of 6.6%. However, each bullpen’s performance varies. Rays have a very solid bullpen with a 3.37 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. Rays relievers threw 263 strikeouts in the regular season.

Milwaukee Brewers relievers posted an ERA of 4.17 and a 1.22 WHIP, in total, they threw 304 strikeouts, leading the National League. 

Steven Cohen already bought the Mets. He will probably want to improve the bullpen since the Mets relief pitchers had a 4.60 ERA and a 1.45 WHIP.

Blue Jays bullpen’s ERA was 4.71 and had an ERA of 1.49.

Marlins bullpen only generated a 4.6% swing and miss rate that is the lowest in the majors. A 5.50 ERA and a 1.55 WHIP didn’t look good.

Among these relievers, Tanner Rainey had a 23.7% swing and miss rate. He produced swings and misses mostly by his slider.

Devin Williams is the Brewers' bullpen weapon. He produced a 23% swing and miss rate. Most hitters are fooled by his devastating changeup.

Edwin Diaz’s ERA was only 1.75 in this season and batters only hit .191 against him. It seems that he bounced back from a frustrating 2019. He created 22.8% swings and misses, mostly by his slider.

Nick Anderson posted an ERA of only 0.55 and a great 0.49 WHIP in the regular season. Opponents hit only .091 against him. He’s incredibly effective on the mound and created a lot of swings and misses by mixing his curve and fastball.

Jordan Romano had a 7.63 ERA while pitching 15.1 innings in the 2019 season. He tossed 14.2 innings and had an ERA of 1.23 by effectively using his slider and four-seamer.

Do you think Liam Hendriks is the best closer? He successfully made 14 saves, second most in the majors. Meanwhile, His WHIP was only 0.67 and opponents hit only .161 against him. Hendriks mostly uses four-seamers and sliders to fool hitters and also to create many swings and misses.

Raisel Iglesias has collected more than 100 saves in his career. In the 2020 season, he had a swing and miss rate of 20.2%.

Jake McGee was released by the Colorado Rockies before this shortened season began. However, he reunited with Andrew Friedman, Dodgers' President of Baseball Operations. Friedman spent nine seasons from 2006 to 2014 with the Rays while McGee pitched for the Rays from 2010 to 2015. McGee uses his four-seamer more than 96% of time, thus there shouldn’t be a problem to call him a one-pitch pitcher. One dominant pitch helps McGee create swings and misses and makes him bounce back.

A hitter must be frustrated after a swing and miss. However, a pitcher definitely loves to see that a hitter can’t make contact against him. Pitching in the fly ball revolution is not easy, how to leverage pitch mix to avoid making contact is getting more important, particularly in the playoffs.