RELIEVERS: 2022 Best skills in August

This column looks at August leaders in xERA, K% and K%-BB% and then the season-long metrics for these relievers to give a sense of what you might expect for the stretch run and for 2023. We start with xERA under 2.00 in August:

xERA<2.00 Aug       Aug xERA YTD K% YTD K%-BB% YTD HR/9 YTD xERA
=================   ======== ====== ========== ======== ========
P.Fairbanks (TAM)     1.44     38       36        0.7     2.05
S.Hentges (CLE) (L)   1.57     27       19        0.6     2.97
T.Stephan (CLE)       1.59     31       25        0.4     2.94
J.Duran (MIN)         1.60     33       27        1.9     2.29
E.Clase (CLE)         1.70     29       26        0.3     2.21
A.Munoz (SEA)         1.74     41       34        0.9     2.16
A.Chafin (DET) (L)    1.84     31       25        0.6     2.80
R.Pressly (HOU)       1.87     32       26        0.5     2.71 [IL]

xERA is just an all-in-one quick look at effectiveness. Here, we have eight relievers with a xERA under 2.00 in August and when we look across the entire season, we see that all of them are also under 3.00 xERA for the year-to-date. Six of the eight have a K% at or above 30% for the season, which is also elite, and one of the two under 30% is Cleveland closer Emmanuel Clase (RHP, CLE) who has been dominant all season inducing groundballs and posting that very nice 26% K%-BB% which means he isn't walking...

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