Mark Melancon- The Closer We Need?

[striker42]

When we traded for Melancon, I saw a 34 year old former closer who had produced at a mediocre level in recent years. When it came out that we were on the hook for the rest of his contract, I wasn't a fan of the trade.

However, watching the guy pitch I thought that he didn't look like a mediocre, 4.00 ERA reliever.

I looked at his stats again and I don't know how I missed it but for each of the last three seasons his BABIP is .365 or higher. This year his BABIP is .372. His career BABIP is .297 (exactly what you'd expect).

I then looked at some of his other numbers. He's striking out just over a batter an inning. His B/99 is 2.70. His HR/9 is an excellent 0.48 which should be sustainable considering his HR/FB% is 11.5.

All in all, it looks like Melancon should be performing significantly better than his ERA suggests and that at least a portion of his struggles since going to the Giants has been due to bad BABIP luck. It also appears he's having his best season in a couple of years this year.

In the end, I think his ERA is probably inflated by a full run. While he's not a dominant, blow it by you closer, he seems to be very solid and is clearly unaffected by the pressure of the situation. A calm, reliable closer who pitches at a 2.90 ERA level would be huge for this team.

[Carp]

As long as he stays healthy, he'll be a valuable reliever and worth what the contract. I just hope we can bring Martin back at a reasonable price. Jackson, Greene, Martin, and Melancon would be a strong core for a BP in 2020. If Sobotka and Minty can get back on track along with solid options like Weigel, Dayton, Webb, and Walker, we could have a legit elite BP in 2020. And that's not even mentioning Touki and Newk who could find themselves in the BP again in 2020 if they can't lock down a rotation spot out of ST.