Starting pitchers get the big contracts, take home Cy Young Awards, and are often household names.
Closers are the last ones on the mound for the winning team of a close game and are remembered for securing the victory. Other times, they are known for surrendering a late-inning lead and blamed for heart-breaking defeats. In either case, their impact on the outcome of a game is a lasting one.
Then, you have middle relievers, who are often are vastly underappreciated but immensely important to the success of a team. Bridging the gap between the starter and closer generally doesn’t bring with it much merit or many accolades. It’s not a high-profile job, but it is an essential one.
In Darren O’Day, the Baltimore Orioles have one of the best middle relievers in Major League Baseball. Oriole fans know it. Outside of Birdland, you probably wouldn’t find many who recognize his name.
Since being selected off waivers from the Texas Rangers after the 2011 season, O’Day has been one of the more reliable arms in the Orioles bullpen. He appeared in 69 games in 2012 and 68 last year, posting a 2.28 and 2.18 ERA, respectively.
In 2014, O’Day has taken his game to another level. Through 51 games (53.2 IP) he’s pitched to a 1.01 ERA (387 ERA+) and 0.89 WHIP with 55 strikeouts. O’Day is allowing a career-low 5.5 hits per nine innings, stranding base runners at a 96.4% clip, and inducing ground balls 45.3% of the time.
Among qualified American League relief pitchers, O’Day is second in ERA and left on base percentage, ninth in WHIP, and tenth in opponents’ batting average (.176). According to pitch value data compiled by PITCH f/x, Darren O’Day’s slider this season grades the second best among AL relievers.
The only guy better? New teammate Andrew Miller.
While O’Day hasn’t been “bad” (or close to it) during his nearly three seasons with the Orioles, we saw a sharp decrease in the right-hander’s effectiveness against opposite side hitters in 2013. In 2012, he held lefties to a .205/.237/.420 batting line over 88 at-bats. Last year, those numbers rose to .309/.367/.556 over 81 at-bats. This year, O’Day has rendered left-handed batters essentially useless, holding them to .186/.266/.286 in 70 at-bats.
In terms of O’Day’s pitch distribution, we can see noticeable shift in the use of his sinker and slider between this year and last, thanks to the indispensable Brooks Baseball.
In 2013, O’Day utilized his slider a whopping 47.04% of the time against lefties, with the sinker coming in at 19.5%. In 2014, the split is nearly identical (30.67% and 30.03%). Combine that with his fastball and we see he’s less reliant on any of his main three pitches than in previous seasons with the Orioles.
It’s also interesting to see increases across the board to career-high levels in velocity, as well as the introduction of a changeup, which has only been used against left-handers.
Extremely small sample size noted (just 10 counted pitches), but O’Day has yet to allow a hit when he’s thrown a changeup.
When Buck Showalter makes his way out to the mound to change pitchers and No. 56 makes his way in from beyond the outfield wall, more often than not a sense of calm is felt around Birdland. Darren O’Day has proven to have the ability to get the job done in most cases and while we have become accustomed to seeing him retire right-handed hitters with regularity, the success he’s had against those from the opposite side this season has further cemented his status as one of baseball’s better relief pitchers.
