Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez notched his 50th save on Sunday night, and if you've been following some of Joe Sheehan's recent work, you know that K-Rod is well on his way to smashing Bobby Thigpen's single-season record of 57 saves, set back in 1990. You're probably not aware that he and the rest of the Halos are in sight of another record as well.One thing that most of these teams, including the Angels, have in common is a top-notch bullpen; all of the teams above who have played since 1954 (the furthest back the BP database goes) finished in the top three in the league in BP's signature relief stat, Reliever Expected Wins Added (WXRL) with one exception: the 1977 Orioles, who had the worst bullpen in the league.
Through Sunday, the Angels were 29 games over .500 at 79-50 despite having outscored their opponents by only 53 runs. That put them 9.7 wins above their expected record -- their first-order Pythagenpat projection based on actual runs scored and runs allowed. They're 13.5 wins above their second-order projection, based on Equivalent Runs scored and allowed as derived from run elements (hits, walks, total bases, stolen bases, etc.) and adjusted for their park and league scoring environment. And they're 12.2 wins above their third-order projection, adjusting for the quality of their opponents' pitching and hitting via Equivalent Average (EqA) allowed and opponents' EqA. That last figure would tie for third all-time if the season were to have ended on Sunday (the Angels lost on Monday night, slightly lowering these figures). Turning to the big board for the top 20:Since the spreadsheet provided to me by Clay Davenport (who cooks up the Adjusted Standings every day) doesn't go beyond the first decimal place, I haven't bothered to break the ties here. AEQR and AEQRA are the adjusted Equivalent Run figures once opponent strength has been incorporated. D3 is the difference between third-order wins and actual wins, with a positive number representing a team that's exceeded its projection. "Won" notes whether a team won their division (Div), pennant (Pnt) or World Series (WS).
Rk YEAR TM W L PCT R RA AEQR AEQRA D3 Won
1 2004 NYA 101 61 .623 897 808 911 831 12.7 Div
2 1970 CIN 102 60 .630 775 681 757 676 12.6 Pnt
3T 2007 ARI 90 72 .556 712 732 708 739 12.2 Div
3T 2008 LAA 79 50 .612 600 547 588 566 12.2
5T 1954 BRO 92 62 .597 778 740 782 749 12.1
5T 2005 CHA 99 63 .611 741 645 740 684 12.1 WS
7 1905 DET 79 74 .516 512 604 524 601 11.9
8T 1924 BRO 92 62 .597 717 679 717 684 11.7
8T 2002 MIN 94 67 .584 768 712 759 741 11.7 Div
10 1954 CLE 111 43 .721 746 504 717 511 11.4 Pnt
11T 1907 CHN 108 44 .711 574 390 552 394 11.2 WS
11T 1961 CIN 93 61 .604 710 653 705 658 11.2 Pnt
13T 1931 PHA 107 45 .704 858 626 841 639 11.0 Pnt
13T 1972 NYN 83 73 .532 528 578 533 583 11.0
15 1984 NYN 90 72 .556 652 676 657 671 10.7
16T 1936 SLN 87 67 .565 795 794 808 809 10.2
16T 1977 BAL 97 64 .602 719 653 719 662 10.2
16T 2006 OAK 93 69 .574 771 727 791 772 10.2 Div
19T 1997 SFN 90 72 .556 784 793 780 789 10.0 Div
19T 2007 SEA 88 74 .543 794 813 792 824 10.0
Labels: Hit and Run, Hit List, Red Sox
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