Quote:
Originally Posted by JayP
I've posted this in the past, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. The problem with "sure closers" in that once you get that reputation it's tough to lose it regardless of performance. So unless you have a sure closer who's also consistently great every year (and there's only a handful of those guys in the league), you can easily get stuck with a Kevin Gregg like last season where the team has to use the guy in inefficient situations because you have to be a slave to the save. Sometimes you're better off having a closer by committee situation because it makes accumulating saves less important and finding ways to win more important.
I don't know much about John Farrell's approach to managing the bullpen so all these thoughts might be a moot point. But all I know is that with Cito around the closer was only used in save situations and given every opportunity to finish what they started when any casual baseball fan could tell Gregg was about to implode (ie; when he walks the first two batters)
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I thought Cito actually pulled the rope back a little more than the start of the year, Baltimore/Gregg late last season comes to mind. Cito though was one of the worst managers in setting up a bullpen.