One day, although at the rate we're going, it will be one day next century, baseball will wake up to the nonsense of designating one pitcher as "the closer. The latest illustration of this inanity is the annointing of Will Ohman as the closer for the Baltimore Orioles. The lefty is the fourth pitcher so designated by the Birds, the first three having all landed on the disabled list.
Now, I like Ohman. He's a good pitcher as his 19 strikeouts in 18.2 innings might suggest, but until annointed as the closer, he was the "left-handed specialist." In other words, he was considered only good enough to retire left-handed hitters, a notion supported by the fact that he has racked up those 18.2 innings in 29 appearances. In other words, he is not quite recording 2 outs per appearance meaning that he is being yanked from the game rather quickly. How can someone be judged a "left-handed specialist" one day and then suddenly be good enough to be the closer--that is someone good enough to get three outs against three right-handed hitters if necessary--literally the next? If anyone can explain the logic behind this thinking, please go immediately to the Comment section!
Except for a few guys such as Goose Gossage or Mariano Rivera, who have great stuff, but not the stamina for 9 innings, the pitchers in the bullpen are there for a reason: They're not good enough to be starters! Too often, the modern manager brings in from the bullpen a pitcher who is not as good as the pitcher he is removing from the mound. This can be avoided by a simple shift in philosophy rather than in strategy. Simply leave the starter in the game until it becomes clear that there's a reliever who is better than the guy currently in the game. Then leave him in until it becomes clear that there's someone out there who's better than he is.
I'm sure we will revisit this topic again (and again) this summer. In the meantime, perhaps someone could start a website, say "abolishthecloser.com" or something.
As for Will Ohman, the first chance he had to save a game came this past Sunday against the Red Sox. He failed.
Recent Comments