It's been a goofy year for closers in MLB so far (both good and bad). Some guys are off to fantastic starts, while other established guys have been brutal, if you go strictly by the numbers:
- Eric Gagne (6.14), Jason Isringhausen (6.59) and Trevor Hoffman (6.52) have ERAs over 6.00 in 16, 15 and 10 appearances, respectively.
- Mariano Rivera (12 appearances) , Joakim Soria (13), Brad Lidge (15), Billy Wagner (12), Troy Percival (10) and BJ Ryan (7) have yet to give up an earned run after plenty of appearances.
- Manny Corpas (Colorado's closer last year) already lost his closer job 2 weeks ago - he currently has an ERA of 8.62.
- Jose Valverde was absolutely God-awful at the beginning of the year, but is now on something like a 7 or 8 appearance streak without giving up a run. This has lowered his ERA to 5.29.
- Francisco Cordero has had 4 save opportunities so far this year. He's converted all 4. If he had stayed with the Brewers, he'd have had 10 more save opportunities already. See - all the Reds needed was a closer!
What does this mean? Nothing, except that it's been a weird year. We'll see if some of these numbers even out a little bit. Hopefully for the Brewers sake, Gagne stops walking people.
5 comments:
CoCo's gotta be loving his job. One save opportunity per week if he's lucky. No stress since nobody expects much of the Reds anyway, and a huge chunk of $.
This is a very general comment that really has nothing to do with this post.
I have been wondering... I feel a lot of fans dislike Ned Yost, me included as well as many people that read these posts. I feel every response to harsh criticism of Yost is responded with, "well ultimately the brewers batters have to hit or brewers pitchers have to pitch. You can't blame Yost for those problems."
Why not? If we end up having a mediocre year is it the players' fault for not performing? But if they have a good year Yost will be rewarded with a possible extension?
This is my main question... At what point does Ned Yost and his staff become accountable? I am not leaving out Maddux or Skaalen by any means. ALL OF THE COACHES. Does anybody work with with Gagne to figure out why he is good some nights and bad other nights? Who helps Rickie Weeks with mechanics? Does anybody analyze why Villanueva and Parra seem to hit the wall like Bush? Why are our pitchers walking so many people?
When does the coaching staff become accountable for not changing a struggling system? By what I hear from Ned Yost, he actually does nothing. I believe his response to the hitters not hitting is either bad luck or "they'll come around." When does he become responsible for that? Ever? To me he basically says he does nothing to change their hitting woes.
I get real frustrated when we throw down so many excuses for our team and yet the youngest team in the bigs has the best record. Are you saying that all of their players are basically better than ours?
I really wish someone would just get rid of our entire coaching staff and start brand new. There has to be someone out there that can help Weeks, and Hall and Hardy. Someone has to be able to see that there is other talent in AAA and maybe should be brought up for a change if people up here cannot get it done.
I am sorry for the length, but I have to get this off my chest since I know that neither Haudricourt nor Adam McCalvey would ever answer this question. They like to wimp away from the hard questions.
Garcia,
I am a Yost apologist on this blog, however the definition of insanity is doing the same thing every day and expecting different results.
But do we really want to go back to the new line-up EVERY day like last season? It seems that people are going to question Yost whatever he does if they are losing.
You make some great points in your post. And I agree that things need to be looked at or at least communicated to the fans. I want to belief that the coaches are "coaching" and developing our guys behind the scenes.
All in all good post with some great questions.
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