Today the Red Sox traded for Wes Littleton. Who, you ask? Exactly. Pretty much nobody. Here's the Boston Globe on Littleton:
The 26-year-old sidearmer is 5-3 with three saves, a 3.69 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 102.1 innings over 80 career relief outings with Texas. He had a 6.00 ERA in 18 innings for the Rangers last season, spending most of the season at Triple A Oklahoma, where he went 7-1 with a 4.01 ERA and six saves in 44 games.
So, why is this on this blog aside from the fact that nobody else is posting and I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel here? Here's why:
Littleton's main claim to fame is earning a save with three scoreless innings in the Rangers' 30-3 victory over the Orioles on Aug. 22, 2007. He entered the game with a 14-3 lead.
Yes, the Rangers actually did score 30 runs against the Orioles. The weird thing was that after 7 full innings the score was only 14-3 which, while an unquestioned blowout, isn't completely abnormal. But the Rangers didn't slow up, scoring ten runs in the eighth inning and then six more in the ninth, the last three coming with two outs. Wonderfully humiliating.
All this is preamble to the point though, which is that saves are a worthless stupid stat. Know why? Because Littleton pitched three innings with a lead of, by inning, 11 runs, 21 runs, and 27 runs, and he got a save! Somehow he "saved" the game for the Rangers by doing that. If he actually saved anything it was the inevitable humiliation of some outfielder who's always dreamed of pitching and, hey!, now that we're up by 27 runs, its my chance!
My shitlog could've done that. Hell, Jose Canseco could've done that.*
*Actually, Jose Canseco did do that.
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