when i started following the dodgers, charlie hough was their "closer" with 22 saves. that wasn't something i understood at the time, but looking back now it's pretty crazy to think of a knuckleballer closing out games a la hoyt wilhelm. soon it was terry forster who was the closer (he matched hough's total in 1978), and then steve howe came onto the scene and i had a better understanding of bullpen hierarchy. still, the 22 saves that hough and forster registered tied jim brewer for second on the team's single season leaderboard. brewer was also on top of that list with 24 saves in 1970. it wasn't until 1989 when jay howell passed them to set a new team record with 28 saves.
where i am going with this is that there were no dodger relievers with more than 28 saves in any season until todd worrell joined the club and recorded 32 saves in 1995. i've had his 1998 score artist proof parallel
worrell also had three 30 save seasons for the cardinals before joining the dodgers, who were the last franchise to reach that mark other than the rockies who were just in their third year of existence. even the marlins (who entered the league with the rockies in 1993) had a 30 save season before the dodgers.
worrell also had the dodgers' first 40 save season when he recorded 44 in 1996. he followed that up with 35 in 1997 which turned out to be his final year in the majors. only kenley jansen and eric gagne have saved more games in a single season for the dodgers than worrell, and i am thinking it may be awhile before there is another dodger who reaches 40 saves given the way dave roberts is managing the bullpen.
Score made some nice looking parallels. I haven't seen this one.
ReplyDeleteVery cool card. I'm a big fan of Score's Artist Proof parallels from the 90's. As for Worrell... I mainly remember him being with the Cardinals.
ReplyDelete