Middle relievers: getting more respect in today's game: with complete games being rare and closers being limited to one inning, setup men are becoming more important in major leagues.

ONE OF THE MANY DIFFERENCES in baseball from the 1980s until today can be found in the bullpen, and we're not talking about the quality or the content of the jokes.

We're talking about the setup reliever.

Padres TV analyst Mark Grant, who knows a little about both bullpen humor and relief pitching, said when he was a setup man for the Padres in the late 1980s, players in his position were "guys that just didn't get any love."

They usually don't get much ink," Grant added. "You know, it was like so-and-so went seven and one-third solid innings, he had this, he had that ... Joe Schmoe came in and got the next two guys. Then the closer came in."

Grant and other middle relievers used to be Joe Schmoes. But not anymore.

"Early on it wasn't a glamorous thing," Grant said. "Now it's glamorous. You know, 'I'm a setup guy. Dig me.'"

Setup relievers still aren't paid like the glamour guys-nearly all of them make less than the major league average salary-but baseball people are quick to acknowledge their importance. Most Padres fans know their club would not have won 87 games last year without Scott Linebrink and Akinori Otsuka setting up save opportunities for Trevor Hoffman.