Werent we leading the league in blown saves after 2 months?
We've been through in like six ways how weird and misleading the blown save stat is, but maybe this perspective will click for some people.
Take a look at the current list of teams by their number of blown saves:
22 Mets
21 A's
20 Cubs Nationals
19 Dodgers Padres
Red Sox
18 Yankees Pirates Mariners
17 Braves Royals Tigers
16 Rays
15 Astros Rockies
14 Diamondbacks Orioles
13 Phillies Brewers
12 Reds Twins
11 Rangers
10 Indians Marlins
9 Cardinals Giants Angels
8 Blue Jays White Sox
What strikes me looking over this list is the way that most of the teams in the top half are excellent teams, some of them with elite, elite relief pitchers: Oakland, Chicago, Washington, LA, Boston, NY, Atlanta. There are far more contending teams in the top half of this list than the bottom.
As with RBI coming with opportunities, you need to *have* leads to blow them. If you're pitching in relief for the Marlins, you're not in many save situations. Indeed, they're at the bottom of the table, with only 68 (Boston has 103).
So this suggests a few things: Baltimore has 36 wins and 14 blown saves — ouch. On the converse, Cleveland (63 wins, 10 BS) and St. Louis (57 wins, 9 BS) are getting real efficiency out of their bullpen. Minnesota (66, 12), too. NY's 18 BS look better when you remember that they have 68 wins, and that makes sense: looking at the personnel, we'd expect good relief pitching from NY.
But any account of how the number of blown saves is a major headwind for Boston should probably also engage with the fact that the Dodgers, the best team in the NL and the current MLB wins leader at 71-39, has the same number.
Now, this isn't to say that everything's amazing in the Boston pen.
I played around with a spreadsheet and created a simple stat: Team (Holds+Saves)/Save Situations. League average is 81.2%, and the low team (unsurprisingly, the Mets) is at 72.6%. The best team (again, unsurprisingly) is SFG with 89.5%. The Giants have turned 90% of leads handed to their bullpen into wins! That's tremendous. Boston is in a cluster of teams a few tics shy of average, at 78.6%, ahead of contenders in Oakland, Los Angeles, and Chicago. TBR is right at average, but they have by far the most save situations. NYY is well above average, at 86.2%, one spot ahead of Houston.
Basically, Boston's pen is preserving 4 of 5 close leads, and NY's is preserving 5 of 6.