One thing I noticed right off the bat is that last year's middle relief king, Carlos Marmol, must have been dynamite in the second half, because he barely cracked this list.
Top 10 N.L. Middle Relievers, Pre-All-Star 2008
| # | Player | AS $ | Sal | +/- | $ |
| 1 | Heath Bell | $23 | $7 | +16 | $10 |
| 2 | Hong Chih-Kuo | $22 | $0 | +22 | $19 |
| 3 | Taylor Buchholz | $22 | $19 | ||
| 4 | Jorge Campillo | $20 | $13 | ||
| 5 | Damaso Marte | $17 | $0 | +17 | $11 |
| 6 | Brian Shouse | $17 | $12 | ||
| 7 | Carlos Marmol | $15 | $9 | +6 | $21 |
| 8 | Chad Durbin | $15 | $11 | ||
| 9 | Jared Burton | $14 | $1 | +13 | $7 |
| 10 | Chan Ho Park | $14 | $7 | ||
| Average | $18 | $2 | +16 | $13 |
These guys fell off more in the second half than their A.L. counterparts did, though the fact that they were on pace to earn $1 more per pitcher explains some of that; there was more room for disappointment. I also find it interesting that while in the A.L. the Top 10 Pre-All Star were all very cheap middle relief plays, here Marmol and Bell were CIWs that everyone expected would earn big.
In case you're wondering, Marte is a fairly representative example of what a $0 pitcher in the second half might have looked like, as he pitched 1 2/3 IP for the Pirates in the second half before getting flipped to the Yankees.
The $6 dip makes me think that there is going to be a lot more dichotomy from the first half to the second half in the N.L. than there was in the A.L.
Top 10 N.L. Middle Relievers, Post-All-Star 2008
| # | Player | Post AS $ | Sal | +/- | $ | |
| 1 | Carlos Marmol | $11 | $9 | +2 | $21 | |
| 2 | Sergio Romo | $9 | $12 | |||
| 3 | LaTroy Hawkins | $9 | $9 | |||
| 4 | Steven Shell | $9 | $11 | |||
| 5 | Cory Wade | $9 | $15 | |||
| 6 | John Grabow | $7 | $14 | |||
| 7 | Jeff Bennett | $6 | $7 | |||
| 8 | Guillermo Mota | $6 | $5 | |||
| 9 | Carlos Villanueva | $6 | $4 | +2 | $6 | |
| 10 | Mike Adams | $6 | $12 | |||
| Average | $8 | $1 | +7 | $11 |
It's as if the National League decided to have Upside Down Day for Middle Relievers or some such nonsense.
Who are these guys? Steven Shell? Cory Wade?
Mike Adams is still pitching???
For the most part, this is what you expect to see when you look at a group of 10 middle relievers and combine a small sample size of 65-70 games. Still, this list is more than a little shocking. If you were fishing for middle relief help in 2008 in the N.L., you were essentially closing your eyes and seeing where your dart hit after it landed. And if you held on to your top middle relief guy in the hopes that he was going to keep earning at a $15-20 pace, chances are that you were sorely disappointed.
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