Nothing middling here

Sunday, September 11, 2005 | Feedback | Print Entry

Sometimes you scan box scores late in the season and you notice the name of a middle reliever and you see the accompanying ERA and realize: That guy is having a pretty good year.

Of all the players at all positions, middle relievers tend to sneak up on us more than anybody, because they don't usually win or lose a lot of games, and they aren't in position to get many saves. Even ERA is not necessarily a good measure for a middle reliever, because many righty or lefty specialists have low ERAs while allowing a terrible percentage of inherited runners to score. And heck, middle relievers are virtually worthless in most fantasy leagues.  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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