John Hiller just threw back a fistful of pocket-linted Sloprin.
To justify the save, it’s said that a pitcher needs extra guts, or grit, or intangible “makeup,” to pitch in the ninth inning. This is indeed a mystery of faith, with no evidence to prove it. So closers have taken to adopting special behavior and insignia to feed this myth. The facial hair, the stare, the fist-pump, the sprinting entrance from the bullpen, the theme song: closers are circus clowns. (Valverde one of the biggest.)
They perform this act to advance the pretense that even easy save situations are incredible tests of courage. And, amazingly, all of baseball has swallowed it. That’s why piling up easy saves brings in millions of dollars, which is the kind of market inefficiency which should have driven Billy Beane and sabermetric-savvy front-office consultants bonkers decades ago.
Yes, it makes sense to use your best remaining reliever to finish a game with a one-run lead, but you could use anyone in the pen to protect a three-run lead. The dirty little secret is that a team could prosper without a closer and in so doing save itself millions. Of course, they’d be depriving the fans of that climactic clown act. Yet a savvy manager could do what managers did pre-Holtzman: use the reliever best suited for the game situation. Different men would pitch at the end of different games, because in each game the batter/pitcher matchups are unique.
In my opinion, nothing has more degraded baseball than the closer folly. The Tigers could restore some sanity. Of course, I doubt they have the right manager to handle this task. But at the moment they have the right personnel: a mix of live young arms and craftier veterans in the bullpen — and no reliever being paid the market price for closers (which itself compels the manager to use him as one by rote).
Jim Leyland, you have been given free will. Will you shock the baseball world and exercise it?
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1. Dale Sams Posted: March 05, 2013 at 10:53 AM (#4380972)But I wouldn't recommend it.
This. Since Valverde shelved his splitter two years ago, he has been...not a very good pitcher. In reality, the Tigers proved that you don't need a closer in '11 and '12, because Valverde showed that you could rack up a boatload of saves by repeatedly throwing errant, marginally above average four-seam fastballs in situations where you could afford to give up a run or two and still win.
Valverde was a "name" closer, but his R/9 was uninspiring, and his performance in games where he didn't have the margin of error provided by a ninth inning lead was pretty dreadful. Detroit has a hole at closer this year, but it's not a new hole.
And the world series winner's the year before had 8 different guys pick up a save during the season.
Because he is a registered and certified "set-up man," duh.
Though in reality, I wouldn't be surprised if there's actual real logic behind the decision not to promote him. It's my recollection that he has had issues with gopher-itis in the past, and if there's one thing you don't want your closer to suffer from, it's that. On the flip side, he IS probably Detroit's best reliever.
I wouldn't say shelved. He's a 2 pitch pitcher, all he throws is fastball and splitter. But he has thrown it less often, in 2010 it was 50/50, the last 2 years he's throwing 80% fastballs. Throwing more fastballs + less velocity is not a great formula.
Leyland used Benoit more than any of his other relievers last year, both in terms of appearances and innings. Did he say "physically" but meant the opposite, or does he mean that using Benoit so much last year took a toll on his performance and by pushing him to the limit he learned that he didn't bounce back from frequent use?
Yeah, that one struck me as odd as well. My first impression was that he misspoke, but then I remembered that Benoit did start suffering from shoulder fatigue in the latter part of last season. So I guess either interpretation could be correct.
Yeah, but they were paying for one.
I think that's possible, that's why I was confused by the word "physically."
I'm sure Boston would part with Aceves, he was a "closer" last year.
Leyland said earlier this spring that he doesn't think Benoit is good pitching back to back days, hence the physically part. Benoit was throwing a ton around the middle of the season last year and then had a bad streak in the fall, which I suspect is what has led to his being branded a non-closer in Leyland's mind.
Benoit is not the best reliever on the Tigers. I'd put Alburquerque (who I'd give first shot to close, he Ks everyone and never allows homers) and maybe Dotel ahead of him.
They also don't have their "hearts set" on Rondon... they gave him first crack at the job and are reassessing their options now that he's looked like... a young guy with great stuff who needs more seasoning. I'd be shocked if he starts the year as closer unless his performance improves dramatically.
I would hope Boston would part with ANY of their relievers if it meant getting some real pieces back. Especially given how they have little chance this year and the contract status of Bailey and Hanrahan.
Of course...none of this will happen.
*There are still at least a handful of areas in Detroit that are nicer than your mother's basement.
Al definitely has the best arm/stuff, but the track record is a little thin, he's coming off of TJ, and he just sort of seems like the kind of guy whose arm could fly off of his body at any time. I would give him a good long look, but there are plenty of question marks there. Dotel is pretty old and can't get lefties out.
The Detroit bullpen, however, really isn't in that bad of shape. Benoit is a solid #2, Rondon has potential, Alburquerque and Villareal have great stuff, Dotel is reliable against righties, and Coke is a very versatile lefty reliever. If the Tigers put Smyly in the 'pen they would be in even better shape, as he, like Coke, is a lefty who can face righties and go for more than one inning.
The raw material for a strong bullpen exists. They just don't have the "closer" part nailed down.
So you're saying my baseball team is on a computer in Leyland's mother's basement...AND exists somewhere else?
I hate quantum string theory.
I always thought it was kinda weird that in most sports, you want your best players on the field at the end of games, but in baseball, you typically do not have your best pitcher in the game.
I'd imagine you'd get a ton of pushback to your plan. TLR in the mid-90s when the A's were terrible, had a unique plan where 2-3 pitchers would piggy back off each other for 3-4 innings at a time. It lasted like five games because starters complained about not being eligible for the win. If someone with the gravitas of TLR couldn't get buy in from pretty fringy MLers, I doubt anyone else could implement this anytime soon.
Cespedes is going to take him deep the first time they face each other this year. Write it down & underline it.
I believe it's now considered more of a foam than string if that helps any.
This may sound logical, but maximizing human performance and logical are not always intertwined. Getting that to work would require fantastic managerial skill, and you would have to program a ton of young athletes to think completely differently than they have their whole lives. Maybe possible, but highly unlikely.
Also what #25 said.
but he left me sleepless in Seattle, I can tell you that."
Who are you and what have you done with Jim Leyland?
Not arguing this point per se, but aren't high school and college pitching staffs handled quite a bit differently than professional staffs? Legitimate question by the way, since I honestly have no idea.
Plenty of teams have competed or even won, while starting the season off with no real closer, or finishing the season with a different closer than projected. Teams find a closer if they need one. It happens every year, and I think that every year a team makes the playoffs with a closer that nobody would have projected them to have at the beginning of the season.
If the Tigers put Smyly in the 'pen they would be in even better shape, as he, like Coke, is a lefty who can face righties and go for more than one inning.
I agree that Smyly would be an excellent short reliever. He Ks a lot of guys, doesn't walk many. But Smyly is too valuable as a potential mid-rotation SP to put him in the pen when, as you say, the Tigers have a bunch of cromulent RP options to choose from. Using Phil Coke against righties isn't one of them though, no matter how well he did last October. In 2012, he allowed a 1.050 OPS against righties in 115 PAs. The year before it was .806.
There were definitely articles about the 2003 Red Sox.
Just like about 96% of people's usage of the word "literally."
Joe Beimel had "God's Gonna Cut You Down" by Johnny Cash, but I think he's retired now.
[deleted: The Anthony Young/Beck/"Loser" joke didn't quite work.]
Must be a show tune.
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