@MarkKnudson41
Jhoulys Chacín isn’t going to end up in anyone’s Hall of Fame…except maybe the Liceo Jesus Enriqux Lozaela High School Hall in his hometown of Maracaibo, Venezuela. After spending 14 years pitching in the Major League for seven different teams, he certainly deserves at least that.
Chacín was released by the Colorado Rockies this week, after struggling to post an ERA of 7.61 in 47 innings, one of the highest among National League relievers this season. He was credited with four wins, most of those coming early in the season when he was more effective. In recent weeks his number hadn’t been called that often. The writing was on the dugout wall.
Typically, you wouldn’t bat an eye when a struggling relief pitcher gets released. But Chacín is a bit of a different story. He’s probably not a guy you’d think of when you talk about the most effective Rockies pitchers ever, but the numbers say otherwise. After breaking in during the 2009 play-off season, he became something of a mainstay in the Rockies rotation for six seasons. In 2011 he won 11 games, and his 2013 he topped that with 14 wins. Both years, he came within an eyelash of reaching the 200 innings mark, something that’s pretty much unheard of nowadays. While he was 38-48 during that period, it’s not like the Rockies were lighting it up back then. Even with the 92 win season in 2009, Colorado was a cumulative 68 games under .500 over that span.
The past two seasons, Chacín went a combined 7-4, meaning he posted 45 wins as a member of the Colorado pitching staff. How many have topped that? He’s 10th on the all-time wins list. More impressively, he posted a 19.0 Baseball Reference WAR for his career, placing him among the Top 20 Rockies of all-time.
Chacín is what some statistically focused folks like to call “an accumulator.” Meaning he was never great, but rather good enough to participate in enough games to accumulate some nice career stats. Those “accumulators” – guys like 324 game winner Don Sutton for example – aren’t thought of that highly by most observers. Sutton won almost twice as many games as the great Sandy Koufax (165) but you’ll never hear anyone give Sutton any sort of edge in the comparison, even though both are rightfully enshrined in baseball’s Hall of Fame.
The point is, there has to be some sort of mythical award for guys like Chacín – who posted a better WAR as a Rockie than Jorge De La Rosa AND Jon Gray – who are able to continually answer the bell for their team when called upon. Ask any manager what he thinks of “accumulators” and he’ll tell you he’s very glad to have one or more any time he can get them.
Remember, the best ability is availability. So give Chacín credit. He was always available and gave the Rockies everything he had when they needed him. It didn’t end well (but how many careers do?) but the numbers say that the battling righthander from Venezuela is among the best Rockies pitchers ever.