In 1996, The New york Yankees reinvented a position in Baseball that had not been highly thought of since 1990. The Cincinnati Reds had the "Nasty Boys" in their bullpen and teams new that if the game got to them, it was a wrap. I have wondered what was it like in the 20's, 30's 40's etc.. until the 70's why teams never really valued their closer. Mike Marshall in the 70's had like 100 zillion appearances in a 2 year span allowing the Dodgers to compete for world championships. Rollie fingers and his fancy mustache helped the A's win several world series.
The Yankees had Sparky Lyle and Goose Gossage who closed games for them. Kent Tekulve for the pirates
.In the 80's Bruce Suter was one of the studs for the Cardinals. Dan Quisenberry for the Royals, Willie Hernandez for the Tigers and Lee Smith for several teams. Every team had a closer who had a nickname. The mad Hungarian, Senor Smoke, just to name a few off the top of my head. Not until 1990, with the reds did teams have a format that they believed signified the end of a game.This past week we saw three teams lose playoff games because their closer couldn't hold leads for them. Jonathan Papelbon had not given up a run in any postseason game that he had pitched in. He gave up three runs to the Angels which ended the Red Sox season. Huston Street found out that the Phillies will scratch and claw until all 27 outs are recorded. Joe Nathan who had only given up a home run to a right handed batter once all season, gets rocked by an "A-Bomb from A-Rod". So what does that hold for us in the next round of the playoffs?
Each of the 4 teams have a closer that is impressive. Mariano Rivera is the greatest closer of all time in the postseason. He has blown only a handful of saves in several opportunities. He did make his only mistake in a game 7 that cost the Yankees a world series win but he has been a model of what the closer should be. Jonathan Broxton from the Dodgers is a beast. He throws 102 m.p.h. and is the baby of this bunch. Brian Fuentes is the only left-hander in the group and he led the A.L. in saves this year and Brad Lidge saved every game he pitched last season including the clinching game in the world series. The thing that separates these teams from one another in the bullpen is the setup man. Ryan Madison i a former starting picture who has great stuff but is very hittable. The Angels and Dodgers use several different men to set up Broxton and the Yankees will use Hughes or Chamberlain to set up Mariano. Each team has the same type of starting pitching. what I mean by that is they each have one guy who they believe can pitch 9 innings if the need them to. They have one guy who they will keep a pitch count on because he strikes out a whole bunch and one guy who knows how to pitch well and keep his team in games until their offense wakes up.
Now the architecet of this in recent years is Joe Torre. He is due to win a title and wouldn't it just slap the Yankees in the face for given up on him. He used to manage Joe Girardi so obviously Girardi uses a lot of Torres' techniques. Mike Scoscia is a former catcher and has bought into the Torre style of managing. Last season his closer Francisco Rodriguez set a major league record for saves. Charlie Manuel wishes he had the same bullpen performance like he had last year. This post season will be determined by each teams bullpen. So get ready for 3 hour games, head scratching moves and dramatic finishes.
See, Mo has created a standard. Nowadays, if you don't hand the ball over to your closer, you will be second guessed till the cows come home. But that takes away from the manager's job. Perhaps if Nathan hadn't been given the ball, The Twinkies would still be in it. The numbers were against him. The Yanks kind of own the guy. I would have had a lot of respect for Gardenhire if he let the eighth inning guy keep going. Sometimes, if it's not not broken, don't fix it. I think formula is a dangerous thing in baseball. Not every close is Mariano Rivera. And in the end Mo may only have a three blown saves but those were probably the three most important saves of his career - Cleveland - 97, Arizona - 01, Boston - 04. Three blown saves that for all intents and purposes ended the Yankees season. I think eventually, there'll be a designated pitcher for every inning and every game will be like an all star game. I say let the pitcher take himself out.
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