St. Louis Cardinals History: All-Time Best Bullpen Based on WAR

The way the term "relief pitcher" has changed meanings so many times across the history of baseball, you get to see how effective pitchers were during their eras of playing major league baseball.

Back in the early days of baseball, there were hardly any relief pitchers. The starting pitcher would go the whole 9 innings, regardless of how they were pitching, and would throw up to 300 innings a season, sometimes more. Then when bullpens were starting to gain popularity in the 50's and 60's we saw the "fireman" come to light. A fireman was a guy who would come out of the bullpen and throw multiple innings to " put out the fire " and close out a ball game. And now in present-day baseball, you have one innings closers, one, sometimes two set-up men, maybe a left-handed specialist or a long reliever, but bullpens are paramount to a team's success today.

One way someone could track how a relief pitcher fared in their career is a statistical measure called WAR (wins above replacement) which shows how many wins a certain player is worth compared to a replacement player at the same position. It is helpful when determining how much value a player has not in their overall stats, but in every field that comes with a player, defense, hitting, pitching, and things like defensive positions and ballpark adjustments. The complicating thing with WAR though is it's ever-changing, the way WAR is calculated changes quite frequently so there are different outlets on how to calculate it as accurately as possible.

The Cardinals have had some legendary relief pitchers over their history, and there were some under-the-radar relievers that you'll see on this list that might surprise you. But let's first look at some pitchers that fell just short of making the top 5 best Cardinal relievers based on WAR.

Trevor Rosenthal (6.0 WAR from 2012-2017)

When Rosenthal had command of his fastball he was one of the best relievers in baseball. He was a lights-out set-up man throughout the 2013 postseason, then recorded 93 saves in 2014 and 2015, making his first and only All-Star game appearance in 2015. Rosenthal had 435 strikeouts in just 325 innings pitched in St.Louis.

Bruce Sutter (6.3 WAR from 1981-1984)

The Cardinal Hall of Famer and Baseball Hall of Famer was one of the big pieces in the Cardinals' run to the World Series title. Sutter is remembered most for striking out Brewers Gorman Thomas to clinch the Cardinals' 9th championship. He led the league in saves in 3 of his 4 seasons in St.Louis, including the strike-shortened 1981 season.

Joe Hoerner (6.4 WAR from 1966-1969)

One of the first prototypical closers in Cardinals history, recording 59 across four seasons. Hoerner never had a season in St.Louis with an ERA over 3, hardly walked anybody, only walking 62 in over 240 innings pitched.

Jason Isringhausen (6.8 WAR from 2002-2008)

The Cardinals signed " Izzy " in free agency back in 2001 after he became an elite closer for the Athletics. In his seven seasons in St. Louis, he recorded 217 saves, the most in Cardinals history, including a league-leading 47 in 2004, and was an All-Star the following year. The Cardinals got Isringahausens prime years as he had a 2.98 ERA across 401 appearances with the Redbirds.

Jesse Haines (Approximately 6.5 WAR from 1933-1937)

Haines is an interesting one to look at, mainly because he made 387 starts over his 18 seasons in St.Louis, but he made at least one appearance in relief in each of those seasons. WAR can definitely sway in the favor of a starting pitcher due to the fact that they usually throw more innings, and Haines did have more relief appearances than starts in his last five seasons, but he still made a combined 43 starts in those years. If you only calculate those seasons where his relief outings exceeded his starts his total WAR was 6.5, but the accuracy of that number is in doubt. This discrepancy will come up again later on.

Let's now take a look at the top 5 Cardinal relievers based on WAR.

5. Al Hrabosky (7.2 WAR from 1970-1977)

The " Mad Hungarian " is known for his wild personality as a player with his antics on the mound, staring down opposing hitters with his threatening handlebar mustache. He was defintely crazy, but he was also one of the most reliable late-inning relievers in Cardinals' history.

Hrabosky was taken in the first round by the Cardinals in 1969 back when there was a January draft and was in the big leagues a year and a half later. He did not become a mainstay on the Cardinals until 1973 when he had a 2.09 ERA and a 9.2 K/9 which was very impressive back then. In '74 he had a 2.95 ERA in over 88 innings of relief and finished in the top 5 in the Cy Young voting. His best season was in 1975 when he led the league in win percentage (13-3) saves (22) and had a 1.66 ERA over 97.1 innings. That season he only finished behind Padres' Randy Jones and Mets' Tom Seaver for the Cy Young, receiving two first-place votes, he was also in the top 10 in the NL MVP voting.

4. Ted Wilks (7.8 WAR from 1946-1951)

Not a household name, but when it comes to being one of the pioneers of late-inning relief in Cardinals history, Wilks was one of those pitchers.

Wilks was mostly a starter in his first two major league seasons, going 21-11 with a 2.74 ERA, including leading the league in win percentage (17-4) and WHIP (1.07) in 1944. He moved to the bullpen full-time in 1946 due to arm troubles going a perfect 8-0 with a 3.41 ERA in 95 innings pitched, helping the Cardinals win the World Series for the second time in three years. Former Cardinal catcher and legendary broadcaster Joe Garagiola is credited for giving the Wilks the nickname "the cork" for being the stopper late in games.

After a down year in 1947 (5.01 ERA in 37 appearances) he had a 2.62 ERA and recorded 13 saves in 1948. Then in '49, he led the leagues in games pitched (59) all in relief and in saves (9). He also led the league in saves in 1951 with 13 in split time with the Cardinals and the Pirates.

2. Lindy McDaniel (9.9 WAR from 1956/1959-1962)

McDaniel began his 21-year Major League career with an impressive stretch of pitching in St.Louis. He was first called up in 1955 as a teenager late in the season and then made 32 relief appearances in 1956. After mostly starting for the next two seasons, he was moved to the bullpen in 1959 to pitch late in games, but at the same time throw multiple innings. McDaniel found a way to go 14-12 in 1959 despite 55 of his 62 outings coming in relief, he had a 3.82 ERA in 132 innings pitched and led all of baseball with 16 saves.

1960 was considered McDaniels best season as a Cardinal and his best as a big leaguer. In 65 games (63 in relief) he went 12-4 (best win percentage in the league) a 2.09 ERA across 116.1 innings pitched, led the league in saves (27), and was the first annual NL Sporting News Reliever of the Year winner. He would win this award again pitching for the Cubs in 1963. Also in 1960, he was an All-Star twice back when they had two All-Stars games in one season, and he finished in the top 5 in both MVP and Cy Young voting, finishing 5th and tied for 3rd respectively.

McDaniels last two seasons with the Cardinals were subpar so if it wasn't for his excellent 1960 campaign, he would not be anywhere close to this list. Now get ready for number one, this name might surprise you.

1. Al Brazle (approximately 12.8 WAR from 1946-1947/1950-1954)

So out of all the great relief pitchers that have pitched for the Cardinals, who has the best wins above replacement? A guy who was never an All-Star, never won a Cy Young, and never won any individual award in his career, go figure. His overall WAR however could be misleading and I'll explain why.

Brazle did not get to the big leagues until he was 29 years old in 1943, recording a 1.53 ERA in 13 games and 9 starts, then he did not pitch in 1944 and 1945 as he served in the military during World War Two. This is where his WAR could be skewed.

In his first year back from war he made 37 appearances and 15 starts, so that is only 22 relief outings. He went 11-10 with a 3.29 ERA so the combination of starts and relief outings would skew his WAR as a reliever alone. Very similar to his starts the next year in 1947, with 19 total starts and 25 relief outings, and just a 2.84 total ERA. Brazle would have more starts than relief outings the next two seasons, but then again in 1950 he had 12 starts and 34 relief outings, how can you accurately predict where the majority of his wins above replacement is coming from? I guess it just depends on who you ask because over those years he was used exclusively as both a starter and reliever.

Brazle was a full-time reliever in his last four seasons in the MLB, starting in 1951 at age 37. He was able to extend his career because of a sidearm delivery that he discovered after dealing with some arm injuries earlier in his career. From 1951-1954 Brazle made 207 relief appearances, went 29-21 with a 3.43 ERA, and broke the Cardinals franchise record at the time in games pitched in a season in 1953 (61). Brazle recorded 48 saves during this stretch as well, including leading all of baseball in 1952 and 1953 with 16 and 18 respectively. In those 4 years, he had a total WAR of 5.7, and his total adjusted WAR if you took a percentage out to recognize the fact that his WAR from a few of those years came from starts, he would still rank towards the top in Cardinals history, just not the highest.

Brazle was a very underrated pitcher, his adjusted ERA is equal to Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers, and it's higher than Hall of Famers Bob Lemon and Warren Spahn and most of his success came way past his prime. Brazles total WAR for his career stands at 21.4, and more than half of that (likely) came as a relief pitcher, it is up for debate on what exactly it should be.