Friday, September 07, 2007

Saito: #3 in OFB

What's OFB, you ask? Well, according to today's Wall Street Journal (no link; maybe Rupert M. will change that soon?), OFB, or Off-Base Percentage, "measures how often a pitcher retires the batter he faces. The higher the number, the better his performance."

So our own Takashi Saito is really earning his pay this year, as his .794 OFB leads the National League and is third in the majors, behind Rafael "Nuno" Betancourt of the Indians (.803) and JJ "What A" Putz of the Mariners (.797). The nearest National Leaguer is Troy Percival (.760) of St. Louis.

Trevor Hoffman is at .736; the Snakes' Jose Valverde is at .721. Dodger fans already know how lights out Saito is in the ninth--if we can make it to October, you've gotta think this will be a powerful weapon for us.

The Red Sox' Eric Gagne, albeit injured again, is at .685--below Andre Ethier's victim yesterday, Ryan Dempster, who is at .703.

3 comments:

Alex Cora said...

He is also the DHL Delivery Man of the Month! Go Sammy!

Orel said...

Did Gagne go on the DL again?

Rob said...

The WSJ's Daily Fix column can be occaisionally cool, but there are times when they come up with something perfectly goofy like this. Pitcher OBP against is already recorded; why do we need another stat whose initials are already taken? (OfBP?)