Here are Eric Gagne's 20 2007 appearances with Boston:
| Leverage | WHIP |
| 0.00 | 1 |
| 0.02 | 0 |
| 0.04 | 2 |
| 0.20 | 2 |
| 0.23 | 1 |
| 0.27 | 0 |
| 0.28 | 2 |
| 0.48 | 1 |
| 0.48 | 1 |
| 0.53 | 2 |
| 0.69 | 1 |
| 0.69 | 1 |
| 0.75 | 0 |
| 1.13 | 3 |
| 1.64 | 2 |
| 1.65 | 1 |
| 1.97 | 12 |
| 2.20 | 3 |
| 3.31 | 4 |
| 3.70 | 5 |
When the leverage was under 1.00--when the situation was less critical than it would be for a starting pitcher on his first pitch--he was great. The mean of these 13 WHIPs is 1.08. When leverage was over 1.00--usually a save or hold situation--he was terrible. The mean of those seven WHIPs is 4.37...the median is 3.00.
Look, this seems to be a case of an MLB pitcher losing his nerve...this seems to be Calvin Schiraldi redux, except with an ex-Cy Young closer suffering from the problem.
Signing such a pitcher to a $10 million contract to close for a contending team may have been a mistake.