Alfredo Aceves “Los Yanqui Buitre”
Have you ever heard of the vulture win? More on this from David Young of ESPN.com back in 2007:
Vulture wins are a function of opportunity, both in being the pitcher of record when a team takes the lead and of the team’s ability to take that lead. While there’s an element of luck involved — being in the right place at the right time — there’s also an element dependent on having enough talent to merit a manager’s faith to take the mound in potential vulture situations. Typically, the league leaders in vultures will have depended more on talent than luck to get their wins, and the king vulture, or league leader in vulture wins, will be around the 10-win mark by season’s end.
Personally, what really makes a “vulture” (pitching season) stand out to me, in addition to the wins, is not being charged with many losses at the same time.
So, who have been the great vultures in Yankees history? Thanks to the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia, we can look at some numbers on this one. And, to that end, I asked the “CBE” to show me pitchers for the Yankees where they had seasons with GAMES STARTED <= 5, GAMES >= 10, WINS >= 8, and LOSSES <= 3 (all at the same time). Here's that group ranked by RSAA:
RSAA YEAR RSAA GS G W L 1 Mariano Rivera 1996 35 0 61 8 3 2 Sparky Lyle 1974 22 0 66 9 3 3 Johnny Murphy 1941 17 0 35 8 3 4 Ron Davis 1980 15 0 53 9 3 T5 Johnny Murphy 1936 11 5 27 9 3 T5 Ron Davis 1979 11 0 44 14 2 7 Alfredo Aceves 2009 8 1 43 10 1 8 Johnny Murphy 1938 6 2 32 8 2 9 Luis Vizcaino 2007 3 0 77 8 2 T10 Steve Hamilton 1966 2 3 44 8 3 T10 Sparky Lyle 1978 2 0 59 9 3
When I look at this list, I like to eyeball the RSAA and Games Pitched (G) columns and do the RSAA/G math in my head. And, when you do that, you know that guys like Mariano Rivera and Johnny Murphy made this list because they were pitching great - more so than vulturing up wins. But, check out Ron Davis in 1979 and Alfredo Aceves in 2009 on this chart. Yes, they were not bad in the RSAA department - but, they were not lights-up either. To me, that suggests that these two lines just may be the biggest "vulture" seasons in Yankees history.
This sort of gets lost in the story of the Yankees 2009 Championship Season - Alfredo Aceves playing the role of "Los Yanqui Buitre."
What are the odds of him pulling this line again in 2010? Wearing my Roger Murtaugh hat, I would probably say “Pretty thin, huh?” - to which, I'm sure, Martin Riggs would answer “Anorexic.” So, let's hope the Yankees aren't banking a repeat of this from Aceves this season.
Ron Davis was actually known as “The Vulture” for a while just because of this. And iirc many of his wins came at the expense of Catfish Hunter (who finished the season 2-9).
Of course the original “Vulture” was Phil Regan.
@ Tresh Fan:
I thought Davis got that handle for beating everyone else to the post-game spread?
For a couple of years there in 1980 & 1981, Davis & the Goose were one of the best 1-2 punches out of the pen. They’d start a Tommy John with his sinker, Ron Guidry with his slider or Dave Righetti, who threw 92-93 mph, then bring in Davis for the 8th, who threw 95 mph, and then Goose to finish up, who threw 100 mph.
Ranks right up there with Mo & Wetteland in 1996 as the best Yankee pen ever.
A little more info on how rare Alfredo Aceves’s season was last year:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/4146
I feel like Aceves is more suited to be a starter due to the fact that he has a rather large repertoire of pitches that he can throw, but none of them are really devastating. He seems like he might do better seeing a hitter more then once in a game. Plus I just love his mound pretense.
Corey wrote:
presence *.
I agree, great mound presence and large repertoire make me wish to see what Aceves could do as a starter, but you know, that same mound presence also looks good as a personification of ‘El Buitre de raya diplomatica’.
P.S. Raya diplomatica = pinstripe
[...] In many respects, Alfredo Aceves’ 2009 campaign helps highlight a lot of statistical platitudes about pitching. Relief wins are rather meaningless when some of them come in extra innings and others are brought about by virtue of long relief, multiple-inning appearances. He did, as Steve Lombardi wrote at Was Watching over the weekend, vulture his wins. [...]