Let’s start the conversation with closers.
No, not just Yankees fireman Clay Holmes and his MLB-leading ten blown saves. We’ll get to him in a second. Rather, let’s talk about closers from a pure pitching standpoint. As in, what do they bring to a team on a game-by-game basis?
In a nutshell, closers throw anywhere from one to three pitches. On any given night, only one is usually working as intended. Now, add MLB’s near-pathological refusal to implement a universal baseball, a la Japan. Not exactly a recipe for consistency, is it?
Such is the issue with Holmes.