Athletics 2014 season review: Joe Savery sweet in small dose

This one should be quick, because No. 50, Joe Savery, barely pitched for the Oakland A's last year. But he did pitch, so here he is.

Player profile

Name: Joe Savery, aka (insert joke about savory food)
Position: LHP, relief
Stats: 3 games, 0.00 ERA, 4 innings, 0 Ks, 1 BB, 3 hits
WAR: 0.1 bWAR, 0.0 fWAR
How he got here: Claimed off waivers from Philadelphia Phillies prior to 2014
2014 Salary: Salary not readily available (likely a portion of MLB minimum)
2015 Status: Signed with Chicago White Sox
2015 Salary: Salary not readily available (likely a portion of MLB minimum)

Season summary

Savery was once a highly touted starting pitching prospect, but he walked too many batters and didn't strike out enough of them and by his mid-20s he was trying to carve out a role as a reliever. Working in shorter stints allowed him to throw harder and strike out more hitters, and he was pretty solid for the Phillies in 2013. With the chance to claim the lefty on waivers, the A's decided to take a flyer on him.

The addition of Savery added one more replacement-level arm to a deep group of relievers. He competed for a spot in the spring but ended up in Triple-A, where he put up an excellent season:

Savery 2014, AAA: 43 games, 2.84 ERA, 44⅓ innings, 45 Ks, 17 BB, 4 HR

He got the call to the Majors on May 9, when Ryan Cook went on the DL and Dan Straily went to the minors. (Yes, a pitcher named Savery replaced a pitcher named Cook.) He made his way into three games, each Oakland victories, ending in the following scores:

May 11: 9-1
May 13: 11-0
May 18: 13-3

In sports, that is referred to as "garbage time." To his credit, Savery got the job done whenever his name came up, as he retired 12 of the 15 batters he faced in those three games. He didn't strike out a batter, but with a 10-run lead you're really just looking for a few quick groundouts or popouts anyway. However, he went back down on May 18 when Jeff Francis was picked up to be the long reliever, and he never made it back to Oakland.

He'd pitched well in Triple-A, and he'd pitched well when given the chance in the Majors, and unfortunately that meant that other teams had started to notice the 28-year-old. He ultimately signed with the White Sox as a free agent, joining Jeff Samardzija and Geovany Soto in Chicago.

There's not a lot to say about Savery's 2014, but that's not his fault. So, here is a list of A's players from last season who have food-related or cooking-related names:

Joe Savery
Ryan Cook
Nate Freiman
Coco Crisp
Billy Burns
Jason Hammel
General Brad Mills
Sonny-side-up Gray
Dan Oreo
(plus Shark, Hot Dog Callaspo, and the Keebler Elf ... BUT NOT KITTEN FACE, YOU MONSTER.)

I wonder if there is a pitcher named Umami in the Japanese League.

2014 season grade, relative to expectations: N/A ... Four innings isn't enough to grade anyone on. But it's tough to argue with four scoreless innings.

2014 season grade, overall: N/A

Video highlights

Nope. There are none on MLB.com.

***

Hey, I didn't say every player was interesting.