"I don’t think you’re retired until the paperwork’s in. But it’s safe to say as of right now, I don’t see that I’m going to be able to throw a whole lot"
By the time you read this, Troy Percival will probably have announced his retirement. He’s already met with the Rays’ management and rumors are flying that he has submitted his resignation. And with the above quote, the writing seems to be on the wall.
Looking back over Percival’s career, there’s no question he had Grade A stuff. But look closer and see how consistent he was. It really is quite amazing.
For starters, in nine years (1996-2004) he dropped below 30 saves just once and accumulated 313 for that period.
He was solid over the course of the baseball season throughout the years, too. Both his opponents batting average and ERA were pretty consistent from April to September. Career ERA high of 3.51 in May and amazingly BA high of .204 in May as well.
If their was one knock on Percival, it’s that his batting average with runners in scoring position (.273) was slightly high, especially with the bases loaded (.380).
Interestingly, he had a career 0.00 ERA against the Angels who he played for his first ten years of his career
Assuming he does retire, Percival’s 358 saves puts him #8 on the all-time list behind Jeff Reardon. He and Billy Wagner are the only two on the top ten list who have never led the league in that category (off topic: Billy never led the league… does that surprise you??).