closers

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Permalink Reply by John Nichols on April 7, 2009 at 1:05am

well, i think the closer is a highly valuable position especially in close, tight games. it's a nice thing to flip a ball to a guy (like izzy in his hayday or lee smith) and know that at inning 8 or 9 the other team won't have a rally to win or that if stl only needs a run or two they'll be shut down.

now as i write this -- i recently heard a very interesting debate about the closer's role. i can't remember who was talking about it...may have been peter gammons...but was saying you know the true purpose of the closer is to shut down any chance of a rally or momentum swing. as you are eluding to jason, that may happen in the 5th inning, bases loaded type of situation. getting through that without allowing a run might be when the "closer" should come in. it actually surprises me that larussa and his analytical mind doesn't do that. heck he bats his pitcher 8th so he can then have a 2nd leadoff man. if there were a manager in baseball to test it out, larussa would be the man.

looking back at last season -- if the closer is overrated, my argument is this...the cards lost 30 games from blown saves. nothing is more demoralizing to a starting or middle relief (as a former pitcher myself in college i can attest) than to not show up in the books because the closer didn't do his job. the cards 11.5 games out. if they convert half of the blown saves that puts them at 5 games out at the worst assuming none of those games were against the cubbies or brewcrew.

i know there's lots of other moving parts on the team, but a solid closer for the cards at least in 2008 was the difference in making and not making the playoffs. i have faith in duncan and larussa in developing motte for the closer role. i just hope his learning curve is a vertical line!

my 2 cents.
-john

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Permalink Reply by Chris Flener on April 7, 2009 at 10:03pm

lack of a closer is what kept us out of the playoffs...no doubt about that!

the closer position is a highly, highly valuable position. If motte or perez (currently still a bit hurt) don't step up, look for the cards to try to find someone in a trade later this season. they knew we had a problem last year, and if one of these 2 young guys can't do it, then they have to make a move...and likely will.

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