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June 12, 2016 Pebble HuntingThe State of the CloserThe Oakland A’s started the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1973 World Series ahead 5-1. There is video of this. Rollie Fingers is on the mound. The great A’s relief ace is already the great A’s relief ace by this point. He was an All-Star in ’73, his 1.92 ERA the fifth best in baseball (minimum 50 innings; third best minimum 100). He saved 22 games, third-most in baseball. He had pitched in six of the seven World Series games, for a total of 12 2/3 innings as John Milner worked him to a 3-2 count leading off the ninth in Game 7. Milner pulls the pitch foul, and that’s when the video of Game 7 cuts off. The final half-inning of that game doesn't appear to exist online.
There’s another video of highlights from the 1973 World Series that does include the final out, though. In it, the Mets third baseman Wayne Garrett lofts a lazy flyball into right center. The catch is made, the camera cuts to the mound, where a pitcher with a mustache leaps into the air, then gets swarmed by teammates and field-storming hippies. What happens in between those two clips, though, almost defies belief, because that’s not Rollie Fingers jumping up in the air. Rollie Fingers was pulled from the game with the tying run up and two outs in the ninth inning of a World Series Game 7.
There are a lot of ways the role of relief ace has changed, but this is an underrated one: Before they were called closers, closers didn’t always close. Sometimes they’d come into a game and then leave the game. There was no pretense that the last out is harder to get than the other ones, and just as you might not bring Rollie Fingers in to face Wayne Garrett one batter earlier than he actually came in, you might not leave him out to face Wayne Garrett, either. The A’s removed their relief ace, and they brought in Darold Knowles, a lefty with a 3.09 ERA, to face the lefty Garrett. It's not even as though Fingers was getting bombed; he had seemed to get the final “out” when Ed Kranepool grounded to the first baseman. The first baseman botched the play and Kranepool reached on an error. That was Fingers’ last batter.
I don’t know. This just blows my mind.
There’s nothing permanent about closer roles, anymore than there was anything permanent about who should bat second or where the shortstop should stand when David Ortiz was coming up to bat. Earlier this year—very early in the season—Ben and I did an episode of Effectively Wild on some seemingly non-traditional things that clubs were doing with the back ends of their bullpens this year. Now that we’re well into the season, it’s a fine time to assess the state of the closer in 2016 and see if any of these non-traditional things are taking hold.
So here we go: All 30 teams, ranked by how “traditional” their reliever usage has been.
1. Angels
But that’s not the only reason the Angels are in the top spot. Rather, it’s because, when Huston Street and Joe Smith were simultaneously unavailable, the Angels gave the save(s) to Fernando Salas. Salas, in 2 ½ years with the Angels, has an ERA+ of 99, and in his career it’s 106. But he has closing experience, and it’s easy to assume that’s why Cam Bedrosian, who is having a fine season, was passed over.
2. Rockies
3. Tigers, Padres, Marlins, Mets, Pirates, Royals, Cardinals, Cubs, Diamondbacks, Nationals, Mariners, Orioles
15. Rangers, Brewers, Phillies
18. Indians, White Sox, Blue Jays, Dodgers
22. Yankees, Red Sox
So the Yankees especially, and the Red Sox to some degree, did that. Notable, and interesting. But what’s notably uninteresting is that they’ve used these multiple closers in the most uninteresting ways possible. They have better seventh, eighth and ninth inning guys, but they still have seventh, eighth and ninth inning guys, corralled into their limited roles. e.g.: Dellin Betances has only appeared in the sixth inning twice (both times with two outs), and he doesn’t have a save. Andrew Miller might be the best reliever in baseball, holding lefties to a .167/.160/.167 line, and he’s being used pretty much exactly how, say, Tyler Clippard is being used. For a team that has three relievers striking out a combined 16 batters per nine, it’s pretty boring.
24. Rays
25. Braves
There’s been an Avogadro’s Number of articles written about how the rigid “ninth inning only” closer is a horribly inefficient use of the guy who is supposed to be the best reliever on the team. And this year, the Braves(!) are finally going to do something about it. They’ve told Vizcaino that he is their ace reliever and that he will pitch to protect a close lead. The Braves innovation? Before the eighth inning, manager Fredi Gonzalez will look at who’s due up for the opposing team. If it’s the heart of the order, Vizcaino will go in and pitch the eighth. Someone else (on Opening Day, it was Jason Grilli) will handle the ninth against what is likely to be inferior competition and hopefully notch the “save.” If the 7-8-9 guys are due up for the other team in the eighth, Grilli will pitch to them, hopefully with Vizcaino ready to protect a still-extant lead in the ninth inning.
There’s a lot of outdated information in there. Fredi Gonzalez is gone. Jason Grilli is gone. And that Opening Day appearance Russell pointed to was literally the only time the Braves have done this all year. Vizcaino has pitched in a number of eighth innings, but in most cases while trailing, and in most cases because he needed work—him needing work being, of course, the result of him being the Closer on a terrible team. He has twice entered the eighth inning to face the heart of the order with a lead, but in both cases he simply stayed in and finished the save, giving him a pair of four-out saves but very few direct hits on the traditional closer role. At least it’s still plausible that the Braves intend to follow through on this in the future.
26. Reds
27. Giants
The second time, Casilla didn’t even do anything wrong: With a one run lead, he allowed a runner to reach by error, then got a strikeout, then saw Bochy again come out to bring Lopez in for the lefty. (The lefty was David Ortiz.) Casilla was less upset. Hunter Strickland ended up getting the save. So that’s unusual. We’ve found something unusual!
28. Twins
After right-hander Brandon Kintzler picked up his first career save with a scoreless ninth in the Twins’ 7-5 win over the Marlins on Wednesday night, manager Paul Molitor announced he'll be backing off closer Kevin Jepsen in the short-term, using Kintzler and lefty Fernando Abad in situations based on matchups.
Kintzler and Abad are the ultimate journeymen relievers, both over 30 and neither with a save to his name. Abad’s $1.25 million contract this year is the largest payday either has ever received. On the surface, this looks bold, so for now it’s at no. 28. But I’ll bet almost anything that within a week Kintzler is the closer and gets every opportunity, and we never talk about matchups again. (Considering Kintzler’s large reverse platoon split in his career, that might be for the best.)
29. Astros
30. A’s
Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson were going to share the closer role. There seemed to be genuine peace over the arrangement. Madson’s first appearance was in the eighth, then he got a couple saves, then a couple in the eighth, then a save, and then another, and then another, and uh oh. By April 22, an A's beat writer was saying "it's obvious" Madson is the closer, and by mid-May manager Bob Melvin confirmed it. It was Madson. He’s finished every game he has appeared in since April 16th, the sign of a truly rigid closer role.
Except one. On May 29th, Official Closer Ryan Madson entered the game in the eighth inning with a one-run lead against Detroit. He retired J.D. Martinez, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez in order. And then… he left. Just like Rollie Fingers, Madson walked off the mound with outs still to go. He entrusted that lead to Sean Doolittle. Doolittle got the final three outs, and he was not swarmed by teammates and hippies. All the same, it kept alive a spark of hope.
Sam Miller is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @SamMillerBB
6 comments have been left for this article.
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I wonder how much the decisions about "closing" are tradition-driven because of the coaches or players, and how much they are tradition-driven because of fan expectations. To a certain extent teams want to give the fans what they paid to come see. If you use your best pitcher to take over the jam when the starter loads the bases to start the seventh, what would the fan reaction be?