RELIEVERS: Early look at usage in some fluid pen situations

Pen roles are changing every day at this point in the season. Here is a snapshot of the Twins, A's, Mariners, Blue Jays, and Marlins. Pay particular attention to Leverage Index ("LI") invented by Tom Tango to measure against an index (of 100) the leverage that each reliever faces across multiple outings. This metric gives you a great view of how a manager deploys his relievers. Also pay attention to the clean appearances ("cln/app") as this indicates the success rate, from a manager's point of view. In these early stages of the season, one blow up-can create a terrible xERA, BPV and other skills metrics. But if the reliever has converted, say, 6/7 clean appearances, the manager is going to see it as six successful outings out of seven....

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