Comments on: Bullpen usage debate rages!

By: SequimRealEstate

SequimRealEstate — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 21:58:08 +0000

May be the solution to the “Save” problem is to create a new category
“High Leverage” you name it and pay more for those guys than the closer.

By: JMHawkins

JMHawkins — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 21:24:45 +0000

I believe there is statistical evidence to back this claim up.

Wow, coals to Newcastle. If you make a claim about statistical evidence on this site, you really ought to back it up.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 06:04:56 +0000

I’ve never seen any evidence to support that claim, and I’ve read an awful lot on the subject.

By: Sammy

Sammy — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 04:17:26 +0000

I think what Baker is arguing is that closers pitch better when they know the ninth inning is theirs alone, and pitch worse when brought into the game in non-save situations. I believe there is statistical evidence to back this claim up.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 03:52:50 +0000

I found Putz’s claim that he’s just not physically used to sitting down between innings interesting; I’m sure that that’s a very different physical routine for him (as well as perhaps being psychologically different.)

It’s especially interesting considering that he came through the minors as a starter, then spent his first two years in Seattle as a multi-inning reliever, and pitched more than one inning in 15 games last year.

This isn’t some new way he’s being used. He’s on pace to pitch in the fewest multi-inning games of his career.

By: Bozo

Bozo — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 03:40:26 +0000

It’s true that I don’t remember Gossage or Fingers or Lyle or other dominant relievers of other eras making similar claims. But I’d also guess that an awful lot of Putz’s preparation is aimed at maximizing his modern 9th-inning-only closer’s role, and that there’s a physical aspect to pitching in different roles that he’s less perpared for, for better or worse.

(Then again, it may just be a case of “Why am I on the mound and not warming up in the bullpen in the 8th inning ?”)

By: msb

msb — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 02:06:11 +0000

I am reading Jonathan Eig’s book about Jackie Robinson’s rookie year:

“Now some on the team began to wonder of [interim manager Burt] Shotten knew what he was doing. Starting pitchers had completed only five of the team’s first twenty-two games, and the Dodgers had used an average of three pitchers a game, an unusually high number by the standards of the time.”

By: Thom Jimsen

Thom Jimsen — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:19:19 +0000

If this can’t be changed, it will be concrete proof that Scott Boras is, in effect, the commissioner of baseball.

By: Tek Jansen

Tek Jansen — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:02:24 +0000

Thanks for the post. I am in complete agreement. I do not know why so many baseball writers seem to forget how the game was played prior to the “save.” I am amazed when I hear announcers, sometimes ex-players who played in the pre-save era, discuss how the 9th is more meaningful or magical than the 8th or the 7th and that only the proven closer has the innate quality to work that inning. I imagine that no-one talked in this manner prior to the concept of the save.