Why do baseball teams have closers

Tell 'em, Wash. It's incredibly hard. But no matter how bad the options are, there is always one that is better—or perhaps less bad—and that's the one you should choose. Joe Nathan should have pitched the 12th inning. In fact, Nathan probably should have come into the game earlier.

When there is no margin for error and starting in the bottom of the ninth, if the game is tied, there is no margin for error , you want your best available pitcher on the mound. When he has to leave, the next-best pitcher should take over. There are a couple of objections to this strategy. Evan Grant mentions that relievers often prefer set roles. A manager could define this as part of a reliever's role , no?

Ah, yes, but his agent prefers a defined role that involves him racking up a lot of saves. And perhaps pitchers perform worse when taken out of their role of protecting leads and charged with protecting a tie. And further, sending Ross Wolf out for a save situation probably increases the chances of one of those heartbreaking losses. While they all count the same in the standings, the heartbreak might linger to the next day and affect the team. If you're going to lose, why not lose in a way that minimizes heartbreak?

Why on earth are you managing like that? Gory Mathematical Details Ahead! Let's look at whether closers pitch differently when protecting a tie which is, as people love to point out, a non-save situation , than when protecting a small lead.

I isolated pitchers who had 20 or more save opportunities they were on the mound at the beginning of a ninth or later inning in which their team was winning by three runs or fewer in a season. I looked at how these pitchers performed in these save situations versus times when they were pitching in the ninth inning or later and the game was tied.

I did not look at games where the pitcher's team was losing or was winning by four or more. Per usual, I used the log-odds method to estimate and control the likelihood of various events, given the batter-pitcher matchup at hand.

Pitchers in tie-game situations were actually less likely to strike hitters out as well as less likely to give up a home run. The probability of an out in play went up. And that makes sense: in a tie game, a pitcher would tailor his gameplan away from things that might cause a ball to fly over the fence, which would cause his team to lose. In a save situation, he has the lead, by definition, and while coughing up a lead is bad, it's not fatal.

There is evidence to suggest that relievers do pitch differently when protecting a tie vs. However, the differences pretty much washed out. They aren't really better or worse off, and as an added bonus, closers in general pitch in a way that fits the situation. Then there's the question of whether not having the closer to protect a lead might lead to a particularly heartbreaking loss. I found all games in which a team had gone into the ninth inning or later with a lead, but surrendered that lead and lost the game.

I then looked at what happened in the next game for that team for both their pitchers and their hitters. Again I used the log-odds ratio to control for batter and pitcher matchups. There was no evidence that a heartbreak the night before predicted any deviation from what would have been otherwise expected.

I expanded the framework to whether a meltdown had happened in any of the past five games for the team. Still no significant effects. Teams may feel awful about what happened last night, but it doesn't seem to affect their performance tonight. And I would argue that this shouldn't surprise anyone.

In the immediate aftermath of a loss, it's tempting to believe that all hope is lost. But let's remember that a baseball clubhouse is not a static entity. Time doesn't stop after the winning run crosses home plate. Baseball teams have their own culture that helps them to deal with the realities of baseball in general, and all cultures have ways to help members deal with loss.

The Brewers announced on Sept. Boxberger seems like their most logical primary setup man to conclude the regular season and into the postseason, though Brent Suter will also be in that mix. The Pirates activated Bednar from the injured list on Sept.

Bednar pitched the eighth to set up Stratton for a ninth-inning save on Sept. Wendelken, however, did close the Sept. After Jake McGee oblique landed on the day injured list on Sept. Doval, however, closed back-to-back victories on Sept. Skip to main content Skip to navigation. Closer depth chart: All the latest moves. Alabama Crimson Tide.

Cardinals QB Murray ankle inactive vs. Arizona Cardinals. KU stuns Texas on walk-on's winning 2-point grab. Kansas Jayhawks. Rookie Seung-hwan Oh, a year-old from South Korea, took over and posted 19 saves with a 1.

There is an inherent toughness that comes with that. Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said the team tried to re-sign Melancon, but were priced out. Jansen and Chapman are now certain to blow past the money Melancon received. But if a closer suddenly falls apart, he can become one of the least valuable assets in baseball. Closers almost always excel against both right- and left-handed batters and are more often than not capable of striking out batters at high rates.

Most closers are right-handed, although there are typically a few left-handed closers in baseball each season. On offense : Closers receive even fewer at-bats than the standard relief pitcher, as they appear only late in games.