Sinkerballers should not be closers

[Mondo Trasho]

I don't care if you gave me Kimbrel, Rodney, Valverde, Mariano himself. None of them would have had any chance against Ibanez. He's simply the best hitter in baseball right now (or at least at late inning pinch hits). Four seemer, eephus, screwball, splitter. Doesn't matter.

[birdreg]

Where was this statement 2,3,4 months ago? Hindsight's 20-20. You aren't going to beat a team like the Yankees very often only scoring 2 runs. The real guys to blame here are Reynolds, Wieters, Jones...

[birdreg]

How's Rodney's looking? See what I mean. Power 4-seamer over a sinkerballer all day long. We are a power closer away from the ALCS. Frikin sinkerballer. Damn.

We only scored 2 friggin' runs!

[Fired-Up]

2nd game he's done this. JJ is dead to me. All you have to do is get 3 freaking people out. Hitting the baseball is the hardest thing in sports and yet the Yankees make it look easy against you. Just 3 freaking people. JJ you are the closer. You have all the advantage in the world over the hitters. Just get the freaking 3 men out. It's 3 freaking guys.

[Frobby]

Strop, Tillman, Hammel, Gonzalez, Bundy, etc. Pretty much anyone with a power fastball or a legit 4-seamer. JJ's ERA was 2.49. That's too high for a closer.

That is just laughable. Johnson allowed 0 runs in 62 of 71 appearances this year. He had one rough stretch of about two weeks that blew up his ERA. He had a 1.21 ERA through 83 games, and an 0.36 ERA for the final 62 games. His ERA was totally distorted by a handful of games in mid to late July. And, his ERA in save situations was 0.92.

Of the 15 AL pitchers who had 16 or more saves this year, the only ones with an ERA lower than JJ's were Rodney (0.60), Soriano (2.26), Broxton (2.27) and Frieri (2.32). We've had a closer with an ERA under 2.49 exactly twice in the last 10 years -- Sherrill in 2009 (2.40) and Ryan in 2005 (2.43). I'd hardly say 2.49 is a bad ERA for a closer.

[Fired-Up]

That is just laughable. Johnson allowed 0 runs in 62 of 71 appearances this year. He had one rough stretch of about two weeks that blew up his ERA. He had a 1.21 ERA through 83 games, and an 0.36 ERA for the final 62 games. His ERA was totally distorted by a handful of games in mid to late July. And, his ERA in save situations was 0.92.

Of the 15 AL pitchers who had 16 or more saves this year, the only ones with an ERA lower than JJ's were Rodney (0.60), Soriano (2.26), Broxton (2.27) and Frieri (2.32). We've had a closer with an ERA under 2.49 exactly twice in the last 10 years -- Sherrill in 2009 (2.40) and Ryan in 2005 (2.43). I'd hardly say 2.49 is a bad ERA for a closer.

Not optimal. That puts JJ 5th out of the 15 pitchers. And if you choke in the playoffs it means little. Just get the 3 freaking guys out. It's just 3 men. I can't stop thinking about it.

[Burg]

Not optimal. That puts JJ 5th out of the 15 pitchers. And if you choke in the playoffs it means little. Just get the 3 freaking guys out. It's just 3 men. I can't stop thinking about it.

You mean like he did on Monday with a one run lead. How quickly we forget.

Here's an idea - how about scoring more than TWO runs so that we don't have to sweat out a one run game.

[Basketeer]

The issue is not what kind of pitcher Johnson is. The issue is that Johnson hasn't looked good all postseason. He was shaky against the Rangers, lost us Game 1, and really lost us Game 3 as well. That gives him one good game out of 4 thus far. That's troubling.

[jjdman]

Not optimal. That puts JJ 5th out of the 15 pitchers. And if you choke in the playoffs it means little. Just get the 3 freaking guys out. It's just 3 men. I can't stop thinking about it.

You must not have ever read any of Earl Weaver's quotes. Like this one.

"You can't sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You've got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That's why baseball is the greatest game of them all."

[badcobully]

This is a pathetic thread and quite frankly JJ owes us nothing! Take away 3-4 of his saves this season and we are watching Tampa Bay play the Spankees. You've got to be kidding me!! I'm not always in love with the protocol of HAVING to use your setup guy and closer, when your starter is dominating, but I'm an engineer from Vermont not exactly an expert (Professional managers get paid to make this choice and I generally assume they know more than I) We score 2 runs, give up 1 questionable run midway through the game and then the hottest pinch hitter in the game ties and wins it and suddenly the formula we've used to win 90+ games is terrible....You need to go back and finish the 6th grade.

By the way...there's no way a 28 year old rookie with no devastating out pitch can start a 'must win" game for us either, eh?

"We are a who we thought we were."

[The Wedge]

Not optimal. That puts JJ 5th out of the 15 pitchers. And if you choke in the playoffs it means little. Just get the 3 freaking guys out. It's just 3 men. I can't stop thinking about it.

It's not "just" three men. It's three men who have one job to do. It's three men who go up there to beat that one man on the hill.

A wise man once said: Sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes...well, he eats you.

[gtown]

No closer saves 100% of games, not even Mariano Rivera (see 2004). With a one-run lead, all it takes is one swing of the bat. JJ has had a great season and he pitched well enough last night to give the Orioles a chance in the 10th and another chance in the 11th.

Sometimes, you just get beat.

[Yardball85]

They just shouldn't. Especially against a home run hitting team. I don't care what JJ did this season.

Sinkerballers should not be closing. Give me a power 4-seamer all day long.

The entire premise of your thread and your subsequent quotes in response to people's counters are laughably idiotic. I sincerely hope you are joking.

[glenn__davis]

Fired-Up once stated he'd jump on a trade of Manny Machado for Ian Kinsler. Maybe if we add JJ to the mix we can get the Rangers to give us Gary Pettis as well.

[Brendan25]

How's Rodney's looking? See what I mean. Power 4-seamer over a sinkerballer all day long. We are a power closer away from the ALCS. Frikin sinkerballer. Damn.

We are a bad closer away from missing the playoffs.

Want Michael Gonzalez and Kevin Gregg back?

Good lord.