Billy Wagner ytd, 12 IP, ERA 0.00

Billy pitched 2 innings tonight, technically scoreless, but one unearned run. Therefore you will read he racked up a "blown save." If another closer pitched .1 of an inning, no runners on base, and a 3 run lead and got out of it, he would've registered a "Save." Even though Billy Wagner really saved the game for the Mets, pitched for 6 outs in a situation where there was no margin for error,

• none of his work will be judged when "Compiled Total Save Stats" alone are used to judge the late inning reliever known as a "closer." At the end of the year, certain people will say, 'Oh, he only had X number of 'saves,' denying him a portion of his actual work.
• Hall of Fame scholars will analyze every detail about a pitcher's "saves" to determine his worthiness but not the work outside of the "save." At least with a batter, there's the sac. bunt or sac. fly stat to acknowledge he may have taken one for the team.

The cheap "save," on the other hand, would help a pitcher gain untold millions in potential future earnings off the field and possible immortality via the Cy Young Award or the Hall of Fame.

• This system is the 'tail wagging the dog,' making the pitcher's lifetime efforts conform to an often engineered stat that excludes many pitchers' hardest work.

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