Caple on Closers
Not so much MN sports related, but it's baseball season, and Jim Caple is an unabashed Twins fan (I think he's a homey, in fact). Anyway, this article is an excellent takedown of the "closer" phenomenon of the last 20 years. I had never really questioned it until a couple years again when it picked up steam amongst guys like Rob Neyer and other baseball writers with critical thinking skills, but I'm a full-on believer in the theory that accepted standard operating procedure on bullpen deployment/closer use is dead wrong. Caple tackles that, but also mocks the whole larger than life phenomenon of the modern closer marketing role. As usual, Billy Beane comes off sounding like the smartest guy in baseball. I'm surprised he can't get his managers to be the ones to finally break the mold.
I'd love to see Gardy be the one (not likely, I know). In a tight spot late in a ballgame, say, 2 on and nobody out in the 7th inning, game tied, heart of the order coming up for the opposition, wouldn't you rather see Joe Nathan come on than Guerrier or Crain? Let the other guy throw the 9th if Nathan gets you out of the jam in the 7th. I trust Guerrier to go one inning, starting with no runners on base, without giving up a run almost as often as Nathan can "hold" a lead for a save in the 9th. But I trust Nathan a lot more to get you out of that bad situation earlier.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/080805
2 Comments:
MCA - thanks for the link, good article. This year for the Twins demonstrates much of what Caple was saying, particularly that series in Boston when Brian Bass came into a tight game and proceeded to blow it and everyone was questioning why Gardy didn't use Nathan and have Nathan get the last 6 outs. However, with this recent M's series, during Game #2, Gardy did go to Nathan in the 8th to get 5 outs, problem was Nathan hung a breaking ball that got jacked.
I would love to see a "closer by committee" where we weren't putting in Breslow simply because it was the 6th. However, this would require Denny "Big Sweat" Reyes to actually throw more than one pitch and not just be the "left hander specialist" (on more than one occasion this year he has come into a ball game and thrown 1 pitch to get a guy out, once he did it and got the win.)
August 7, 2008 at 8:48 AM
Like Caple states with the entrance music, a lot of what the closer does is based on image. He is the guy that is supposed to perform under pressure. The guy who just brings the heat for an inning and then his arm falls off from throwing so hard. I think the theory is that the closer shortens the game to an 8 inning game. I agree in the lack of importance of the closer, that many guys could do it. Heck, if the Hawk and Everyday Eddie can do it most guys who are solid in the bullpen can. I was one of the people who thought the Twins should trade Nathan for that reason. I also thought the Twins were not going to be competitive at the time too and that a high priced closer was not worth it for a mediocre team.
Remember when Tony Campbell was the leading scorer for the T-wolves? It wasn't because he was great but in a game that goes to 100 points someone is going to score. I think the closer's role is the same way. Someone will pile up the saves.
August 7, 2008 at 9:36 AM
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