Darren O’Day gets no respect

Lest we think that personnel decisions have been taken over completely by objective analysis, consider the case of Darren O’Day.

At the end of last season, O’Day — who turned 29 in October — had a career line of 2.89 ERA, 157 ERA+, 1.10 WHIP and 3.02 SO/BB in 180 innings. He had missed most of 2011 due to a hip injury and a loaded Texas bullpen, logging just 17 IP in the majors (with another 21 IP in the minors). But for 2009-10 combined, he ranked:

  • 11th among all relievers with 3.9 Wins Above Replacement (WAR, using the Baseball-Reference version);
  • 7th in Win Probability Added (WPA) among set-up men (20 saves or less);
  • 6th in WHIP among relievers (100+ IP). (See table below for O’Day’s stats.)

Ten days after that birthday, he was placed on waivers by the Rangers and claimed by the Orioles.

O’Day had hip surgery during 2011, but he appeared healthy by season’s end. In three September outings, he retired 9 of 10 batters, with 4 strikeouts. And he pitched very well in the minors while rehabbing and waiting for the big club to find a need.

Although he’s a right-handed submariner, O’Day does not share his breed’s vulnerability to lefty batters. His career splits show a .244 BA/.697 OPS against lefties, with 2.94 SO/BB. The 2011 MLB average for RHP/LHB was .262/.743. O’Day has held righty hitters to .215/.597, with 3.09 SO/BB.

Despite these qualifications, and still a year away from arbitration with a salary of $1.3 million, O’Day was waived for the second time in three seasons.

The Mets had snagged him from the Angels under Rule 5 in December 2008, based on these promising numbers from 3 years in the minors, including a AAA stint: 2.76 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 3.1 SO/BB, 36 Saves. But they cut him loose in April ’09 after four appearances, in which he allowed 2 unearned runs. It was the classic “numbers game”; the Mets felt they needed roster space so that a proven mediocrity could make a fill-in start. Here’s part of the news account from that day:

Where O’Day frustrated Mets officials, however — albeit in a tiny sample size — was dealing with inherited runners. He inherited three runners, and they all scored…. The Mets took O’Day off their roster to make room for Nelson Figueroa, who was filling in Sunday for the injured Mike Pelfrey.

O’Day pitched in 65 games for the Rangers that year, with a 1.94 ERA and 0.95 WHIP and a better-than-average strand rate, then repeated that performance in 2010. In a related story, the Mets’ top two relievers combined earned less WAR than O’Day’s 1.9, and the club finished 70-92, as their era of championship contention abruptly lurched into The Age of Lowered Expectations.

So far this year, Texas’s trash has been Baltimore’s gold: In 7 IP over 5 games, O’Day has allowed 1 run and 7 baserunners, with 7 Ks, and is 12th in WPA among AL set-up men. You couldn’t say the Rangers have missed him, with their bullpen posting a 2.43 ERA and stunning 31/3 SO/BB ratio through 13 games. The Mets, however, rank 14th in bullpen ERA and 12th in WHIP and SO/BB. Except for Jon Rauch, no Mets reliever through Friday had an ERA below 3.86. And three of their “low-budget” offseason acquisitions are getting at least twice O’Day’s salary.

Maybe he doesn’t look impressive in the bullpen. But Darren O’Day gets outs. And someday, he may even get some attention and respect.

In closing, here’s a table showing the 2009-10 stats for O’Day and for every Mets reliever:

Player WAR WPA From To G IP H R ER BB SO ERA ERA+ HR BF BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
Darren O’Day 3.9 3.478 2009 2010 140 120.2 84 29 26 30 101 1.94 236 8 473 .198 .263 .282 .546 43
Francisco Rodriguez 2.3 1.340 2009 2010 123 125.1 96 48 42 59 140 3.02 133 10 531 .208 .300 .323 .623 73
Pedro Feliciano 1.5 2.433 2009 2010 180 122.0 117 49 43 48 115 3.17 126 8 522 .253 .330 .363 .693 93
Elmer Dessens 1.3 0.627 2009 2010 81 79.2 65 26 24 26 30 2.71 148 9 324 .228 .301 .386 .687 89
Manny Acosta 0.6 -0.241 2010 2010 41 39.2 30 13 13 18 42 2.95 134 4 157 .219 .308 .328 .636 79
Ken Takahashi 0.5 -0.429 2009 2009 28 27.1 23 9 9 14 23 2.96 139 2 116 .235 .336 .388 .724 99
Brian Stokes 0.4 0.127 2009 2009 69 70.1 72 33 31 38 45 3.97 103 6 316 .267 .358 .411 .769 110
Fernando Nieve 0.3 -0.122 2009 2010 48 78.2 73 41 40 41 61 4.58 88 14 346 .247 .343 .444 .787 116
Tobi Stoner 0.1 -0.024 2009 2010 5 11.1 12 5 5 4 5 3.97 108 2 47 .286 .348 .500 .848 129
Casey Fossum 0.1 -0.081 2009 2009 3 4.0 4 1 1 4 3 2.25 198 0 19 .267 .421 .267 .688 95
Billy Wagner 0.1 0.041 2009 2009 2 2.0 0 0 0 1 4 0.00 0 7 .000 .143 .000 .143 -56
Darren O’Day 0.0 -0.502 2009 2009 4 3.0 5 2 0 1 2 0.00 0 17 .357 .412 .357 .769 115
Jenrry Mejia -0.1 -1.291 2010 2010 33 39.0 46 21 20 20 22 4.62 85 3 183 .289 .377 .396 .773 119
Jon Switzer -0.1 -0.344 2009 2009 4 3.1 4 3 3 2 3 8.10 56 1 17 .286 .412 .571 .983 168
Sean Green -0.2 -0.942 2009 2010 90 79.0 71 43 39 44 66 4.44 92 6 364 .235 .357 .361 .717 98
Lance Broadway -0.2 0.086 2009 2009 8 14.2 19 11 11 6 9 6.75 62 0 67 .317 .373 .417 .790 118
Bobby Parnell -0.4 -2.072 2009 2010 109 123.1 142 69 63 54 107 4.60 88 9 562 .285 .359 .388 .747 106
J.J. Putz -0.4 -0.371 2009 2009 29 29.1 29 18 17 19 19 5.22 79 1 135 .257 .358 .381 .739 103
Raul Valdes -0.5 -0.515 2010 2010 38 58.2 59 33 32 27 56 4.91 80 7 262 .260 .346 .445 .791 120
Ryota Igarashi -0.8 -0.190 2010 2010 34 30.1 29 24 24 18 25 7.12 56 4 135 .254 .348 .447 .796 122
[Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used / Generated 4/21/2012.]
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Neil L.
Neil L.
12 years ago

John, Toronto fans got more than enough of Mr. O’Day in a recent series. He appeared in two games, earned a win, and pitched two clean innings.

His delivery is totally from “down under” and his breaking ball to right-handed batters totally floats out of the strike zone. They can’t lay off it.

Shades of Kent Tekulve and Dan Quisenberry

LJF
LJF
12 years ago

Totally apropos of nothing, but once I started clicking on those Mets relievers, they have had amazin’ international diversity the past couple of years. Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Japan, Germany, Cuba and the US. Nine nations represented in 19 pitchers.

Doug
Doug
12 years ago

Despite all the impressive work O’Day had in 2009 and 2010, I wonder if what may have been more memorable for the Rangers was how he performed in the 2010 WS, when he twice surrended a home run to the first batter he faced, the first time a 3 run shot.

Not saying it makes any sense to judge a man on two ABs, but impressions formed in critical games, whether good or bad, do tend to linger a long time.