Jonny Venters of the Atlanta Braves Is the Best Relief Pitcher in MLB

Maybe he does not close out games, but what Jonny Venters has done as the set up man is sick. 

With an ERA of 0.52, he leads all pitchers who have pitched at least 30 innings in that category. He is tied with three other relievers for the lead for holds. 

Venters is someone that you need to see in person to actually know why he is the best in business. He has a sinker that is un-hittable along with a nasty slider.

His primary pitch, the sinker, reaches 97 miles per hour and has crazy sink. It looks like it will stay in the middle of the strike zone, but right before it reaches the plate it suddenly sinks. Batters will swing and miss, either hesitantly or just wildly.

His only problem is control, as shown by his 11 walks in 34.2 innings of work. However, of all the balls put in play against him, 84 percent of them are ground balls. As a result, he can quickly erase any base runners with a ground ball double play. He has induced seven double plays, which is tied for seventh in the majors. 

What is once again impressive with Venters is that opposing batters have a .136 BA against him and a .164 slugging percentage as well. Both lead the majors among all pitchers with over 20 innings pitched.

You would expect that with these numbers he gets plenty of rest. Well, that is wrong. He has pitched in more games than any other pitcher in the majors. In those games, he also doesn't just pitch against one batter and then gets yanked. He pitches either the entire inning, or in some cases, he goes two innings. 

If he does not make the All-Star game, it would be a tragedy. At this point in the season, I believe he deserves it more than any other reliever, closer or no closer. He has been scored against in only two of the 31 games he has pitched in and they were only single runs. 

Venters is the only reliever on the Braves I truly feel confident in, and I am sure that would be the case with everyone else if he were on their team. Venters is flat-out the best reliever so far in 2011 in Major League Baseball.