Bruce Sutter splits

Andy Merchant

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Aug 2, 2010
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He was nasty with the Cubs in the late 70s, didn't realize he was pretty much done by age 32 though. RIP Bruce.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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The article points out that he's the first Hall of Famer who never started a major league game, and Bill DeWitt Jr refers to him as a pioneer who changed the role of the late inning reliever. I'm wondering was he also the first pitcher (or at least the first successful pitcher) developed specifically as a reliever? He only made two starts in his professional career. Guys like Rollie Fingers and Goose Gossage were predominantly starters in the minors and even after their initial major league success their teams tried to see if their effectiveness would transfer back to a starting role. Even in the '90s teams were still widely criticized when they used a 1st round pick on a college reliever.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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I mean, should he be? He threw a little over 1000 innings, few hundred less than Nate Eovaldi. He’s most similar to Tom Henke, Doug Jones, and Jeff Montgomery.
I think he gets a lot of credit for being an innovator with his split fingered fastball. Sort of like Candy Cummings (who should be in porn with a name like that) and his curve. The 80s was the decade of the splitter. Giants manager Roger Craig was a splitter guru and taught it to everyone; so he owes Sutter something. Of course a lot of arms and elbows blew out throwing it, but that's a story for another day.
 

Petagine in a Bottle

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Totally fair, and his numbers probably look more pedestrian now only because he was one of the pioneers at his position. A lot of the early closers who got in don’t look like compelling HOFers today.
 

ngruz25

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Sep 20, 2005
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I mean, should he be? He threw a little over 1000 innings, few hundred less than Nate Eovaldi. He’s most similar to Tom Henke, Doug Jones, and Jeff Montgomery.
His career ERA+ is identical to Johan Santana at 136. It's pretty unfair that Santana was dinged for his short career when he pitched about double the number of IP as Sutter. And of course, won two Cy Youngs.
 

Van Everyman

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Me too.

But then the thread would have to be "Bruce Sutter forks" and I'm not sure that's suitable for delicate main board readers.
“Bruce Sutter Gets the Fork Outta Here”?

“Stick a Fork in Him: Bruce Sutter Dead at 69”?

Anyway, I hate that I have no memory of him pitching in the ‘82 WS, the first I watched. I do remember that he kind of stank in Atlanta.