STATiSTICALLY SPEAKING
Joe Nathan retired Friday with 377 career saves, including 260 with the Twins, the greatest relief pitcher in team history. Though he never started a game, and thus pitched just a fraction of the innings of a starter, he still ranks among top 10 Twins pitchers in Wins Above Replacement, which measures overall individual contribution:
49.3 Bert Blyleven
45.5 Brad Radke
35.4 Johan Santana
31.9 Jim Kaat
27.2 Frank Viola
26.1 Jim Perry
24.7 Dave Goltz
19.1 Kevin Tapani
18.4 Camilo Pascual
18.3 Joe Nathan
Nathan's ninth-inning value shows up in Win Probability Added, which quantifies how much each batter faced adds to the probability of his team winning. He's the Twins' all-time leader among all pitchers (Johan Santana is second), and ranks fourth among relievers in major league history:
56.5 Mariano Rivera
34.1 Trevor Hoffman
32.1 Rich Gossage
30.6 Joe Nathan
28.8 Billy Wagner
Center fielders Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones appear on track to gain election to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday when voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America is announced.
