Last year’s World Series winning Kansas City Royals were notorious for their near flawless end to games. Timely hitting was not the only contributor to their success, a dominating bullpen stymied opposing offenses for two, three, sometimes four innings per game. Your 2016 Cincinnati Reds are not last year’s World Series champions.
The closer to begin the season, J.J. Hoover has been as far from reliable as Cincinnati is from another World Series. After establishing himself as a dependable setup man evident by last season’s 2.94 ERA (and ERA’s of 2.05 in 2013 and 2.