Who should be the closer?

[Jerksticks]

That strikes me as a terrible concept. If you're just calling for fastballs, no matter how good the fastball is, you're going to get beat. You have to mix the pitches up, even if he can't throw all of them for strikes, so that the hitter can't just sit on everything.

 

 

Well yea, everyone knows you can't throw only 1 pitch lol; the minor leagues are full of big fastball guys.

 

If my rookie closer isn't locating his fastball after a few pitches, why would I then make him try to locate breaking pitches? The 9th is too high-leverage to mess around with too many show-me pitches. Make people hit their way on. It's not ideal either way obviously.

 

That's why I hate a lefty at closer; if he isn't locating then you have all of these right handers sitting fastball like it's BP. It's not a good recipe. The fastball HAS to be working.

 

If he can get the breaking pitch over consistently then fine, but man, that fastball still needs to be there in the 9th.