Matt Albers pitches in relief for the Baltimore Orioles. At this point in his career, he’s faced a few more batters in relief than as a starter (scroll to the bottom of the table). The difference between the two roles for him are in his home runs and walks. He allows home runs at about twice the rate as a starter compared to a reliever, but his walks go up coming out of the bullpen. The upshot is he allowed a slightly higher OBP as reliever, but a much higher slugging percentage as a starter. Hence, he’s going to give up fewer runs as a reliever.
Of course, it could be the way he’s used as a reliever that is keeping his home run total low. Given that he has a tendency to let balls fly out of the park, it would be best to use him against batters unlikely to hit a long ball. Managers can’t control that as a starter, but they can with a relief pitcher.
With a 5.29 ERA for his career, a low K rate and a high walk rate, managers are best served keeping Matt out of tight situations. That’s how the Orioles used him, with 61% of the plate appearances against coming with his team trailing.
Posted by David Pinto at 4:46 pm | Pitchers, Players A to Z | Permalink | No Comments
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