Relief pitchers are a strange entity. With the small samples they deal in, you’re always wondering whether what you’re seeing is a statistical fluke, the real thing or something in between. That’s where we stand with Tyler Clippard.
For the last five years, Clippard has been … fine, I guess, pitching for eight different teams, notching a 3.21 ERA over 404 innings, striking out 26.9 percent of batters and walking just 9.5 percent. That ERA oscillated between 2.18 in his last year with the Nationals and 4.95 in 36.1 innings with the Yankees.
So what he’s doing this year isn’t really unprecedented.