25 Years Countdown: Top 5 Relief Pitchers

To celebrate 25 years of Triple-A baseball in New Orleans, we are taking a look back at the best players at each position over the last quarter-century. The feature concludes this week with the top five relief pitchers.

Ron Rightnowar

Ron Rightnowar was the first pitcher in club history to be named an All-Star, earning American Association honors in 1994 by going 8-2 with 11 saves and a 2.25 ERA in 51 appearances. He logged 88 innings out of the Zephyrs' bullpen that season, helping the team to its first postseason berth.
Rightnowar gained attention the following spring by going to spring training as a replacement player while the players' strike carried into 1995. After the strike ended, he spent the first six weeks with New Orleans before the Brewers promoted him on May 19, his first call to The Show after nine minor league seasons. He finished with a 2.25 ERA and 10 saves in 25 games with the Zephyrs and went 2-1 with a 5.40 ERA and one save in 34 outings with Milwaukee. His 21 career saves are seventh-most in New Orleans history.

Joe Slusarski

When Rightnowar departed for the big leagues in 1995, Joe Slusarski stepped in as the stalwart of the Zephyrs' bullpen, posting a 1.12 ERA with 11 saves in 33 games. He had reason to feel comfortable on the Privateer Park mound, having starred at the University of New Orleans in 1987-88.
Slusarski returned to the Z's after signing with the Astros in 1998 recorded two saves in 31 games for the eventual Triple-A champions. The right-hander wound up spending parts of six seasons in New Orleans and racking up 188 appearances, 50 more than any other pitcher in franchise history. His time concluded with another league championship in 2001, when he was 5-2 with a 2.47 ERA, which was highlighted by a stretch of eight consecutive scoreless outings during the stretch run in August.

Jim Mann

The leader of the 2001 bullpen was Jim Mann, who was a Pacific Coast League All-Star with a league-leading 27 saves. Mann got off to a blistering start, which included a streak of 22 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings across 17 outings from April 22-June 9. He struck out 81 batters in 68 innings and picked up six victories in 53 appearances.
Mann divided the 2002 campaign between New Orleans and Houston, but picked up another 22 saves with the Z's to earn another PCL All-Star nod and establish the career franchise record which would stand for more than a decade. He pitched briefly with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2003 and before spending the final three years of his career in independent ball.

Kirk Bullinger

The role of closer was assumed by Kirk Bullinger in 2003, after he had gone 4-1 with a 2.75 ERA in 55 games while setting up for Mann the previous year. Bullinger was even better upon taking over the ninth inning, notching a 1.94 ERA with 20 saves in 55 appearances and allowing just four earned runs in 39 innings over the middle three months of the season.
The Metairie native came back to the Zephyrs in 2004 and earned another 14 saves to bring his career total to 38, ranking third on the club's all-time list, before joining the Astros in June. He also ended his New Orleans career with a 2.48 ERA, then the best in franchise history, before moving into a role as a high school and college coach in his hometown.

Chris Hatcher

The pitcher whose name resides at the top of the record books actually began his New Orleans career as a catcher. Chris Hatcher caught 17 games for the Zephyrs in 2010 before making his big league debut that September, then converted to the mound during the offseason and pitched in 11 games with the Marlins in 2011, becoming the first player since 1935 to appear in a major league game as a pitcher after debuting as a catcher.
Hatcher shined as the Zephyrs' top reliever in 2012, recording 11 saves in 37 games with a 0.77 ERA, the best in franchise history among hurlers with at least 25 innings pitched, and gave up just one run over his final 31 1/3 innings. In 2013, he equaled the Pacific Coast League's single-season saves record (33) and tied the club's single-season mark with 60 appearances. Hatcher added five saves early in the 2014 campaign to bring his career total to 49, tying Mann's career record, and lowered his career ERA to 2.37 to best Bullinger's mark.