Skip to main content

Ask Detroit or St. Louis if Closers Are Overrated

Sabermatricians are in theme to their lost opportunity? The Blown Save. In the past week the Tigers have declared two new closers. Fernando Rodney was declared the closer last week, he responded by blowing the only two chances he was given. As a result he was removed from the role and the job was given to youngster Joel Zumaya. Zumaya responded last night by giving up 4 runs in the 14th inning to cough up a win to division leader Chicago, meanwhile Rodney no longer the closer pitched 3 scoreless innings.

For the Cardinals the story has been the rotation of Izzy and Franklin in the closers role. Izzy was the intial team closer but was replaced by Franklin due to injury and ineffectiveness. Franklin was then moderately successful as the closer until Izzy came back to which he blew game after game after the all star break. After blowing three in a row he was again replaced by Izzy, since being replaced Franklin has thrown 5.2 scoreless innings. Meanwhile, Izzy gave up 3 runs last night to blow the lead. Combined the two have 13 blown saves this year. Simply put the 9th inning has been one massive headache for a team that sits only a .5 game back of the wild card.

The bottom line is there is a mental hurdle to get over for closing the games. And some pitchers just don't have it. Perhaps, Zumaya will be able to recover and turn into a solid closer, but given the Tigers struggles one could expect the hurdle to be too high.

(I picked up Rodney last week for the ole fantasy team, and picked up Zumaya on a whim monday thinking he would get the job. I also had Franklin through his multiple blown saves. Ya, not so much good luck oozing from this mans team)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Lou Holtz is the Homer / Annoyingly Delusional

As my buddy Joe and I always joke, if Notre Dame was suiting up against an all Jesus team, aka a team made up of 55 Sons of God, Lou Holtz would probably still pick Notre Dame to win by a touchdown. So of course this weekend when I'm watching Sportscenter and they have him and fellow old man Corso making predictions, Lou picks ND to beat Michigan. Not that big of a deal, Michigan is a big question mark this year, but of course than Lou says that Notre Dame will win 11 games this year. This is the same Notre Dame that lost to a service academy last year. And just when you thought the douchy homerism was going to end ESPN asks which BCS school is going to be the biggest surprise team in the country. Any guesses to whom it was? I'll give you a clue it was another team he coached. If you guessed South Carolina you would be a winner. Next up on Lou's prediction watch, the Jets win the Superbowl, NC St. wins the ACC, Arkansas dominates the SEC West, Minnesota wins the Big

M E T S = Mercifully End The Season

Do it before David Wright gets Hurt!

Ranking the New York Jets Historical Helmets

There's no way you can't go with the Helmet they won the Super Bowl in. You just can't. Next, I really don't understand why they don't where the helmet with the Jet as their throwback uniforms. That helmet is awesome. Then I'm going with the Helmets from the 80s because it's the classic feel and the white face mask is 10 times better than the black one. And the rankings continue until you get to... The Titans Helmet. I hate everything about those Titan uniforms. The Helmets are boring and the colors are GOD awful. Navy blue and Mustard? What the hell is that. Disgusting. If they wore those unis when I was a kid I'd probably be a Giant fan, and be much happier with my life in football.