This season, Scott Barlow has been one of baseball’s top relievers, and it’s past time we started recognizing him as such.
The Royals have won four of their last six games after an 11-game losing run. Josh Staunton and Scott Barlow have pitched in each of the four victories.
Some may have been astonished by Barlow. When the long-haired reliever enters a game, half of the crowd seems to grumble, but that shouldn’t be the case anymore.
Barlow has been a solid reliever for the Royals, and in 2021, he will take his game to the next level. We should be celebrating instead of dreading when Barlow enters a game. The following are the reasons why
You can make just about any athlete appear good using statistics and sophisticated data (Jorge Soler’s exit velocity). You don’t need to look at the numbers with Barlow to see that he’s a good reliever.
Barlow has a 2.38 ERA in 2021, with 32 strikeouts in 22.2 innings and no home runs allowed. He’s 2-1 with seven saves and seven holds.
He passes the “baseball card test,” which asks what you would think of a player based on the back of his card. Barlow has performed admirably.
If you dig deeper into the figures and examine Barlow’s advanced stats, he also passes that criteria. With an ERA+ of 187, Barlow has performed 87 percent better than the typical MLB pitcher.
His FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) is 1.77, while opponents hit against him have an OPS of .590. Nicky Lopez now has an OPS of .620 this season.
So far this season, he’s amassed a WAR of.9.