Up on the blog to close out another week, an expanded 1974 league leader card for the National League's top relief pitchers of 1973:
We begin of course with the Montreal Expos' reliever extraordinaire Mike Marshall who was the dominant "closer" of the era.
Marshall
led the pack with his 45 "points", combining saves and wins at that
time to determine the top arm to put out late-inning fires for his team.
Marshall
was on his way to a dominant few seasons, with his 1974 season for the
Los Angeles Dodgers the peak, as he would set the Major League record
with 106 appearances, taking home the Cy Young Award and helping the
Dodgers make the World Series for the first time since 1966 before
losing to the three-peat Oakland A's.
Right behind him with 30
points is the New York Mets reliever Tug McGraw, who had a very nice
1973 campaign with 25 saves and five wins for the National League
champs.
For McGraw, his 1973 season was actually a bit of a
step DOWN from his previous two seasons where he posted ERA's of 1.70,
with 19 wins and 35 saves combined.
Nevertheless, he was far
from over as a Big League reliever, going on to the Philadelphia
Phillies where he would close out games until 1984 and helping the team
take home the championship in 1980.
One point behind McGraw
with 29 points in 1973 was another long time Major League reliever, Dave
Giusti of the Pittsburgh Pirates, who posted nine wins to go along with
his 20 saves.
Giusti had a very nice 15 year career that saw
him post 145 saves and a 100-93 record, leading the league in 1971 with
30 saves, helping the Pirates to their World Championship over the
Baltimore Orioles.
The year prior, he finished fourth in the
Cy Young race after he posted 26 saves while winning nine, even getting
enough points in MVP voting to end up with a sixth-place showing.
Next week, we move on to the American League and their top relievers of 1973.