Neyer: Giants Turn To Closer-By-Committee, Rationalists Rejoice

[The Giants] opened the season with a set closer, Brian Wilson. He got hurt. They turned to Santiago Casilla. He converted 19 of his first 20 save opportunities, but in his last 17 outings he’s given up 13 runs in 12⅔ innings. So Casilla’s been demoted to pseudo-setup duties. And while some managers would simply have turned to Sergio Romo—one of baseball’s best relief pitchers since joining the Giants in 2008—Giants manager Bruce Bochy is trying something unorthodox…

[Bochy said] “When we get down to the last six outs, it’ll be [Sergio] Romo and [Jeremy] Affeldt and [Javier] Lopez, and if they need a break, it’ll be the other guys.”

There are some big X-factors here. One, you really want (and maybe) need buy-in from the pitchers. Affeldt has expressed disdain for such an arrangement in the past, but is saying all the right things now. And two, you really want a manager who knows the right moves to make… the Giants might have both elements: happy pitchers and adept manager. But still the inertia is strongly the other way. All it takes is two or three straight rough outings by one of the co-closers, and the manager, whoever he is, will probably simply go with the guy who’s been pitching well lately.

Even as clubs have gotten smarter about the numbers, they’ve gotten dumber about relief pitchers, reading more and more and more into smaller and smaller and smaller sample sizes, which is why clubs are now using literally dozens of different relievers over the course of a season. Here’s a news flash: THEY’RE NOT REALLY AS BAD AS YOU THINK.

More on this subject some other time, though. For now, let’s just hope Bochy stays with this for a while. Life’s more interesting when managers are actually using their minds.

Bruce Bochy using that big head!

[The Giants] opened the season with a set closer, Brian Wilson. He got hurt. They turned to Santiago Casilla. He converted 19 of his first 20 save opportunities, but in his last 17 outings he’s given up 13 runs in 12⅔ innings. So Casilla’s been demoted to pseudo-setup duties. And while some managers would simply have turned to Sergio Romo—one of baseball’s best relief pitchers since joining the Giants in 2008—Giants manager Bruce Bochy is trying something unorthodox…

[Bochy said] “When we get down to the last six outs, it’ll be [Sergio] Romo and [Jeremy] Affeldt and [Javier] Lopez, and if they need a break, it’ll be the other guys.”

There are some big X-factors here. One, you really want (and maybe) need buy-in from the pitchers. Affeldt has expressed disdain for such an arrangement in the past, but is saying all the right things now. And two, you really want a manager who knows the right moves to make… the Giants might have both elements: happy pitchers and adept manager. But still the inertia is strongly the other way. All it takes is two or three straight rough outings by one of the co-closers, and the manager, whoever he is, will probably simply go with the guy who’s been pitching well lately.

Even as clubs have gotten smarter about the numbers, they’ve gotten dumber about relief pitchers, reading more and more and more into smaller and smaller and smaller sample sizes, which is why clubs are now using literally dozens of different relievers over the course of a season. Here’s a news flash: THEY’RE NOT REALLY AS BAD AS YOU THINK.

More on this subject some other time, though. For now, let’s just hope Bochy stays with this for a while. Life’s more interesting when managers are actually using their minds.