The fans speak out.(Letters to the Editor)(Letter to the Editor)

The recent article on relievers (August Baseball Digest) underscored my belief that the save is one of the most over-hyped and misleading statistics in today's game.

A reliever who "protects" a three-run lead in the last inning earns a save; he even gets one if he gives up two runs, but still prevents the tying, run from scoring! How tough is that?

It's rare that any team scores as many as three runs in any inning. Check the line scores of any day in major league baseball, and you'll find most games don't even feature a three-run inning. The probability of that happening is less than six percent over-all. So, a reliever can get a save when he does something truly commonplace.

Besides, too many saves today are manufactured for the sole purpose of recording a save rather than occurring because actual game situations warrant a change in pitchers.

Guys like John Smoltz and Eric Gagne are trotted in with three-run leads in the ninth despite previous pitchers shutting down the competition.

They're in simply to record a save and create new records in a very transparent, almost cheap manner. Relievers such as Dennis Eckersley, Lee Smith and Rollie Fingers were rarely used in such a staged fashion.

Terry Segal