Craig Kimbrel is lights out for the Boston bullpen in 2018, but where does he rank among the all-time great relievers of Red Sox past?

Everyone who has watched baseball for the last five years knows Craig Kimbrel. You might not know him on sight or might not be able to remember his name, but when he walks out to the mound, people remember him. Everyone has seen Kimbrel hang his right arm at a 90-degree angle as he is picking his pitch. When batters see him hang his arm, they know that they are in for a long night.

In 2018, Kimbrel is pitching as if batters beat him up as a kid. He is allowing a microscopic .148 batting average, which shockingly is not his best mark. In 2012, Kimbrel allowed a .126 batting average while pitching for the Braves. Also, over 35.2 innings pitched, he struck out 52 batters while only walking 14 of them.

If you have watched Kimbrel pitch, you know that he slings heat across the home plate. Since we are in 2018, MLB Statcast is available to see specifics on certain pitches. Not shocking, MLB chose Kimbrel’s four-seam fastball to track. Over 402 pitches of four-seamers, Kimbrel averages 96.6 miles per hour and his average spin rate is 2,364 revolutions per minute. Incredibly, his average four-seam fastball is 3.3 miles per hour faster than the MLB average. Furthermore, he spins his four-seam 102 revolutions more per minute than the average MLB four-seam giving that extra velocity.

For all of the history of the Red Sox, there are only two relievers that compare to Craig Kimbrel, the 80s reliever Bob Stanley and more recently, Jonathan Papelbon.

When I was poring over the Red Sox record books, only four relievers have more career saves than Craig Kimbrel, who has 92 saves as of June 7. The pitchers’ names are Ellis Kinder (93), Dick Radatz (102), Bob Stanley, and Jonathan Papelbon (219). There were three pitchers (Tom Gordon, Jeff Reardon, and Ugueth Urbina) who appear on top-10 single-season save records, but they only relief pitched for one to two years for the Red Sox. This discussion involves pitchers who were relief pitchers for more than three years.

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