As bad as Kimbrel has been, imagine having "All Star" Clay Holmes as your closer

[Roy Firestone]

Kimbrel has 6 blown saves. He also has taken the loss as recently as the Colorado series when he entered the tied game. and gave up the lead runs. Its not likely he'll ever become the teams closer again this year, and thats understandable.But if you are a Yankee fan, you have to be furious with Clay Holmes. He now has 11 blown saves, and gave up the walk off grand slam to the Rangers last night. The point is, without Felix Bautista this year, saves are harder to come by. Dominguez has been okay, but has two walk offs himself.Both in the same series.Closers all over the league are having a tough time. I still dont want to see Kimbrel with the game on the line, but he's not as bad as Holmes has been.

[dystopia]

Credit to Hyde, he removed a future HOF closer from the closer role because he wasn't performing. Boone is for some reason sticking to Holmes despite not having a career that's deserving of the benefit of the doubt.

[hallThalmt18h]

Pinstripe Alley is fun right now.  Someone said something like, "if Holmes hadn't blown all these games, we'd be in first place comfortably right now," which sounds very familiar!

[Fiver6565]

Kimbrel is probably worse than Holmes actually. The difference is our manager stopped pitching him so often when he can blow games, and Boone has just kept rolling Holmes out there. So, either Hyde is a better manager than Boone, or the Yankees need to find themselves a SigBot, depending on who you think is making these decisions. 
 

Either way, Kimbrel is toast and should get the treatment Soto was getting early on. Only pitch the guy with a 5+ run lead. He would’ve given up a run even last night if not for the diving catch by Slater. 

[dzorange]

It’s almost as if other teams have similar problems to what the Orioles have.

[turtlebowl]

At one time the closer always had elite stuff compared to almost everybody else.  Now you have everyone in your bullpen throwing 95 to 100.  Even though it isn't easy, hitters are handling that better since they are seeing this type of velocity more often.  The closer may still have the most overpowering stuff on a pitching staff but it isn't as drastic as it used to be.  I am guessing the days of true dominance by any closer may be over.

[Frobby]

8 minutes ago, Fiver6565 said:

Kimbrel is probably worse than Holmes actually. The difference is our manager stopped pitching him so often when he can blow games, and Boone has just kept rolling Holmes out there. So, either Hyde is a better manager than Boone, or the Yankees need to find themselves a SigBot, depending on who you think is making these decisions. 
 

I don’t think it takes a SigBot to figure this out.  I bet Yankees fans are howling at the moon about this.  

I must say, I feel the one thing the Yankees have almost always had over the last 30 years is a very dominant bullpen.  It’s refreshing watching this year’s team choke away games.  
 

[Just Regular]

Aaron Boone hustled Holmes into Monday's game after Tim Hill let one baserunner on in an 8-4 game that had been broken open in the middle innings when Bruce Bochy decided to see if Jack Leiter could outplay the top of the Yankees lineup third time through in a close game.

Holmes on 0 days rest this season now at 6.94 ERA in 11.2 innings.

Baseball is a contest of attrition and what's being attrited are pitcher's arms.

 

 

[Bahama O's Fan]

I would not be surprised to see Kimbrel left off of the playoff roster.

[Moose Milligan]

Imagine having Holmes blowing saves left and right and still trotting him out there.

At least Hyde and I'm assuming Elias, too, pried Kimbrel out of the closer role and replaced him with Seranthony.

[e16bball]

Not exactly the point of the thread, I know, but Clay Holmes is a free agent after the season and I’d be pretty interested in pursuing him.

He’s failed miserably in the closer role, but as long as Felix is back to something even resembling his old self, we don’t need him to close. 

He’s been pretty much unquestionably one of the 10-15 best relievers of the last 4 years, and he’ll only be 32. K rate is still good, ground ball rate is still great, velocity and movement seem to still be there. And the .278 xWOBA is still very good, despite his struggles.

Paying veteran relievers is scary business, unless they’ve demonstrated some staying power and consistent results over the course of years. This is a guy who has been a really good pitcher for 4 seasons now. And his apparent inability to close games might well drive the price down. I’m not sure what his market will look like, but I’d be on him. 

Edited September 4 by e16bball

[Natty]

Can he be trusted to pitch in a playoff game?

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Natty said:

Can he be trusted to pitch in a playoff game?

If there was only some way to see how he has performed in the playoffs.

Oh wait...

Six games, 8 IP, 2 GF, 3H, 8K, 2BB, 0R.  4% WPA

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/holmecl01.shtml

[iiiput]

Thankfully we moved on from Kimbrel

fairly quick. We bitch about Hyde, but he’s 100x the manager Boone is. 

[MurphDogg]

1 hour ago, Just Regular said:

Holmes on 0 days rest this season now at 6.94 ERA in 11.2 innings.

Yep, and a 2.28 ERA with 1 or more days of rest.

What is even more jarring is the 6 walks and 7 Ks in the 11.2 innings with 0 days of rest compared to 12 walks and 54 Ks in the 43.1 innings with at least a day of rest.