Quote:
Originally Posted by bizaro86
"Closer" is an anochronysm anyway. They should go with a committee approach for save situations and just use the best pitcher for any given set of matchups. Hoffman doesn't pitch well with too much rest or too little rest, so using him only in save situations is a bad idea. Then if you need to promise "closer" to someone in a trade you don't have an incumbent.
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The thing is that many relief pitchers seem to struggle with the idea of getting outs 25 to 27 for whatever reason. So there is some moxy required for a Closer that requires a bit more than just good stuff to close out a game. There's guys who can mow down the 1-2-3 hitters in the 7th no problem. But ask them to do it in the 9th and they completely clam up. So I think the reason that a lot of teams do not seem to take this approach is that psychologically it's more of a hurdle than it should be. I mean Hoffman got beat by the weakest hitter in the lineup of all guys.