Who Should be the Angels Closer?

It makes no sense to use Downs for 3 pitches, especially with the lefties coming up.

He has to be prepared to work under pressure and in close games

whatever that most important time is, let him pitch it. he is the veteran and ace of the bullpen.

I haven’t reviewed game logs to verify this, but it sure feels as though Downs has pitched in many more high leverage situations that Walden, which is as it should be. I do not subscribe to the “best reliever pitches the 9th inning” school of thought. When Walden pitches the 9th, even if it’s a 1-run game, he comes in with nobody on base. On the other hand, Downs often gets called upon in the 7th or 8th innings to get out of a jam. He may only need to record one or two outs, but he needs to do so right away.

This is at least the second time Downs has faced only one batter and thrown fewer than ten pitches, only to be replaced the next inning by a new pitcher who blew the game. Downs should have pitched the 9th inning yesterday because he was already in the game, and one more inning would not have made him unavailable to pitch today.

Plenty of pitchers have come out and said that they like having a set spot in the bullpen rotation. It gives them a good mindset to go out and say, "This is MY inning. I’m going to shut it down." They like having ownership of that. I don’t know if that increases their performance, or, if it does, whether that benefit is worth the cost of losing a platoon advantage or putting a lesser reliever in a higher leverage situation.

This is the argument that always gets used in support of the Bullpen Role Theory. I have never seen (1) any non-anecdotal evidence that relief pitchers actually feel this way, or (2) any non-anecdotal evidence that their feeling so would affect their performance. It’s a “baseball fact” in the same way that “staying within your mechanics” is a baseball fact. It’s something that people say to justify the way things are after the fact. It’s not the reason why things are the way they are.

I mean, suppose relief pitchers do feel really strongly that they need well-defined roles. Well, who decides what those roles are? The “fireman” was a well-defined role before the closer was invented. He was the ace reliever who came into the game in a really tight spot, no matter what inning, and stayed in until the other team had been shut down. At some point, the world went from firemen to closers without heads exploding and baseball ceasing to exist.

Pitching is a skill. Pitching the seventh inning is not. If a pitcher is genuinely good at what he does, he should be able to do it whenever his manager asks him. Let winning define the roles, and don’t let the roles interfere with winning.

that’s what everyone talks about. sure, he throws fireballs, but he’s also known for his slider. i haven’t looked at last night’s game, really, but sometimes it seems like he reverts to just throwing gas. a competent major leaguer can hit a fastball here and there, and his control isn’t good enough to make them swing when he’s off.