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By Chris Moore A new minor league rule for the 2018 season finds a runner automatically placed on second base during extra inning games. As early as the second game of the AA season, the Hartford Yard Goats found themselves in a position to experience the repercussions of this new rule. My understanding of the rule is that it is designed to limit the duration of games, to speed up the pace of play to such a degree as to satisfy the demands of a modern baseball audience. This being said, it flies in the face of more than a century of precedent and history, not to mention that it promises to trigger predictable strategic approaches. This was on full display in the top of the tenth on April 6 at Dunkin Donuts Park as New Hampshire Fisher Cats first baseman Gunnar Heidt laid down a sacrifice bunt to lead off the extra innings affair, moving his man to third. Two strikeouts later, the Yard Goats came up, and it was deja vu: Hartford catcher Chris Rabago attempted to bunt the Hartford baserunner to third but fouled out, followed by two strikeouts to end the inning. At this point, the pattern and the problem seems clear: putting a runner on second to start extra innings is a shortcut to formulated, means-to-an-end sportsmanship in which sacrifice bunts become cookie cutter inning openers. Unsurprisingly, the Fisher Cats opened the eleventh with a sacrifice bunt by third baseman Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. A triple and a double later, the Cats were on the board to the tune of two runs. In the bottom of the frame, Hartford shortstop Brendan Rodgers — shockingly — ultimately skipped the bunt attempt in favor of an RBI single. A double play and strikeout later, the Fisher Cats walked away with their second win in their second game of the season. The Yard Goats failed to match the results that New Hampshire did, though the question remains: what would the result have been if each team had to work for each bag, just as every baseball team in every season prior has had to. In a sense, it is reassuring that the Cats didn’t win by simply plating the placed runner: their triple and double alone would have sealed the victory. Still, there is something inauthentic about an unearned runner in scoring position that troubles me at the core. Will I ever unquestioningly nod and smile when my team uses two sac bunts to win a game? I can’t imagine that day coming, yet here we are, toying with the concept. The day before Good Friday, on a Thursday that had become the Friday of the shortened work week, Major League Baseball returned. For baseball fans in the New England area, it largely returned in the afternoon, with the Mets taking the field at one and the Red Sox at four. As I believe many if not most baseball fans will understand, the start of a baseball season is representative of much of the good that life has to offer: the spring is just beginning with all the promise of warmer days, optimism, and hope unsullied by loss, injury, or woe.
As a Mets fan, I am particularly hopeful on Opening Day, a day when the Mets have the best winning percentage of all teams. Despite allowing four runs, Noah Syndergaard was the ace we all expected him to be. Of course, winning has a way of resulting in write-offs: after all, of those four runs, three came on two homers. That’s basically two bad pitches out of nearly one hundred, right? Indisputable were Thor’s ten strikeouts across six innings of work, just shy of a quality start but enough to earn the eventual win. After that, it was like the script of an inspirational sports film playing out: Robert Gsellman, who struggled despite great promise last year, handled the seventh by striking out the side; Anthony Swarzak, newly signed Met, delivered a hitless, scoreless eighth; and Jeurys Familia closed down the ninth despite a two-out walk. Lest I focus entirely on the pitching, the Mets lineup provided intrigue: Brandon Nimmo leading off? Yoenis Céspedes batting second? Asdrúbal Cabrera the cleanup hitter? The pitcher in the eighth spot? Despite all the talk, the offense delivered hits aplenty and so many at the right times. All in all, they delivered twelve hits and walked nine times. Opening Day starting catcher Kevin Plawecki even had two hits, an RBI, and two runs! I switched over to the mid-afternoon matchup between the Red Sox and Rays in time to hear the call as Eduardo Núñez dropped a blooper into left center field that resulted in a near collision followed by a round trip as Núñez delivered an inside-the-park home run! With the Sox up 3-0 before the bottom of the second, I walked away and checked in intermittently. I’m not a fan per say, but so many of my friends and colleagues are Red Sox fans, not to mention my late grandfather who was readily identifiable by his Boston hat that he never seemed to be without. As long as they’re not playing the Mets, I’m rooting for them. Thus, I was shocked to see the post-game result: they had collapsed in the bottom of the eighth, giving up six runs to take the loss. Later that night, I woke up around midnight and found myself unable to return to sleep. I tossed and turned, alternatingly too hot and too cold. At last, I turned to my MLB At Bat app, finding that the Indians were into the final innings of their game against the Mariners. Cleveland ace Corey Kluber had given up a two-run homer in the first inning but had held on to achieve the eventual complete game. However, his team had only scored a single run since then. Going into the ninth, Yonder Alonso struck out. Just when it all seemed bleak, Edwin Encarnacion was hit and took his base. A further hit batsman, a pinch runner, a balk, and a stolen third base later, the Indians were putting together a story book rally. Alas, two more strikeouts bailed Edwin Díaz and the Mariners out, sealing Seattle’s victory. I still couldn’t sleep, but the west coast continued to deliver with action between the Diamondbacks and the Rockies. Specifically, the Rockies were down 6-2 but challenging in the top of the seventh. Archie Bradley was called in to work out of trouble and did so promptly. He returned for a scoreless eighth, striking out two along his stint. Ever since I read an interview with him following the wild card matchup between these same teams last year, I’ve found Bradley interesting. With him out of the game and the Diamondbacks having tacked on a further two runs — and with baseball for the day all but exhausted — I fell back to a peaceful sleep. All this is essentially to say: welcome back, baseball. With so many games and so many teams and so many different ways to follow the games and soak in the history of the sport, I’m thankful to be here at the start of a new season. Tomorrow may be wonderful or terrible, but for today, I had twelve hours of Opening Day optimism. Suffering through the Los Angeles Dodgers' brutal four-game sweep of the New York Mets last week was enough to shock me into the realization that this could be a losing season for the Amazin's. Of course, any reasonable human being would have concluded this long ago, but I like to think that fandom requires logic as only one part of its greater, more complex whole.
Thus, I--as, I imagine, many Mets fans have--have nursed the feeling that this season still holds promise. After all, my first favorite baseball player, Jose Reyes, is back and speedy as ever. Asdrúbal Cabrera can clearly play a mean second base. Yoenis Céspedes and his clutch-ness is locked in for years to come. Jay Bruce is raking and has, in a wildly unpredictable way, become the face and voice of the Mets' locker room. Curtis Granderson has kicked his early slump and blasted ahead to a .300-plus batting average in the second half of the season, according to a recent SNY report. Lucas Duda is at first and Wilmer Flores continues to flirt with .300 and Michael Conforto has made good on his two-years-ago potential and Rene Rivera continues to be a beast. It should be an exciting time to be a fan of the Mets! Instead, we've been treated to nightly pre- and post-game reviews of defensive inadequacies and an ever-lengthening list of injuries that threatens to derail a once-promising season but also promises to foster a parade of new faces to meet and learn about and allow us to be inspired to hope. The Mets' starting rotation has been hit hard by injuries, and with Robert Gsellman leaving tonight' game against Miami, there is only one original Mets starter who has not been hit by the injury bug--though I can't bring myself to mention his name here, for fear of courting superstitious disaster. This all brings me to an essential question: what is fandom, and what are its demands? In the simplest sense, being a fan should mean rooting for your team despite their place in the standings and being proud to support the players and, overall, the team that you've either grown up watching or grown to love. Taken another way, however, there are reasonable expectations of any major league team, and when they fail to meet them, shouldn't fans have a right to indignation and profanity? There is perhaps something healthy in this, as in expressing frustration and venting through sports in a way that is untenable or inappropriate in everyday life. Still, how much of a fan are you if you only support your team when it is winning. That seems awfully convenient... My takeaway tonight--after watching the Mets lose Gsellman to a hamstring injury and lose the game due to a number of reasons--is that baseball fandom is complicated and demands a commitment of the spirit that is challenging. Unlike football fans, baseball fans don't receive a retrieve until next week. Instead, we have a mere 24 hours before our favorite team takes center stage once more for better or for worse. This is frustrating and maddening, yet it is also exciting and promising. So, yes, I choose to hope: the Mets couldn't beat the Marlins tonight, but they might tomorrow and the next night. And if they can, then they could work their way back to .500. And yet, that doesn't matter as much as it could or should, because whether they do or don't recover this season, I'm going to keep on watching and rooting and that has to mean something in and of itself. Doesn't it? In our first edition of "Ghost Writer on Second," blog reader Guy Incogneetus writes: "If you were the Mets skipper, what would be your explanation for this season so far? I know the obvious answer is injuries, but if you look at their lineup, they are still loaded on paper in both pitching and hitting. Is it an underperforming star pitching staff? Is it homers + no speed = no rallies offense? Is it lack of motivation and lack of "team spirit"? Part of me thinks there is an intangible that cannot be measured that could be the cause of this. Something has to change. This question about the Mets comes at precisely the right time, Guy. You've nicely addressed a wide range of elements and concerns, and that's really the problem, isn't it? Simply put, there are too many components not functioning properly or fully this year for the Mets.
My brief answer to your question is: if I were Mets skipper, I would explain the lackluster results of the season thus far as a result of a confluence of inadequacies. Now, in a little more depth... You used the phrase "on paper," and this is definitely a team that, on paper, was--and, in my Mets fan heart-of-hearts, still is--exciting. This past winter, I picked up a copy of the Sporting News "2017 Baseball Yearbook," and reading the entry on the 2017 Mets, I was struck by how promising they were, quite literally, on paper! However, revisiting that entry this morning, I found it to be no better than frustrating and foreboding. Here's a brief list of quotations from the article (published February 2017) juxtaposed with realities from May 2017: - "Of the projected six-deep rotation, the only ones to last the season were Noah Syndergaard and Bartolo Colón." Well, the former is out until at least the All-Star Game and the latter, as noted by Guy as well as the magazine, has signed with the rival Braves. - "...David Wright..." All that needs to be said is Wright's name: conjure up memories of his leadership both on and off the field in past years, then note his essential absence since early in spring training. - No quotation needed for this next one: in the following paragraph, Lucas Duda, Travis d'Arnaud, and Neil Walker are all addressed as key players lost to injury in 2016. Thirty-five games into the 2017 season, two of those three have again missed significant playing time. - The next paragraph addresses the headline-news worthy signing of Yoenis Céspedes. Unfortunately, he last played seventeen days ago on April 27th and is currently on the DL. In summary, he has played eighteen games this season, which will amount to half the team total after today's game against the Brewers. He was there for eight wins, or half the Mets' total wins thus far this year. Despite all this time off the field, his batting average (.270) holds at third on the team list, and his six home runs are also good enough for third place. - "Though the young rotation was as touted as any group since the 'Young Guns' Braves of the early 1990s that included three future Hall-of-Famers, New York's group is proving not nearly as durable." This article lists off the 2016 injury history of starters Zack Wheeler, Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, and Steven Matz. The only player not addressed here--Syndergaard--is now on the DL for the foreseeable future. Matz has yet to arrive to start his season. Harvey has struggled recently and had additional drama off the mound to overcome. Due to a variety of reasons, four additional men have been called on to serve as starters thus far: Robert Gsellman, Rafael Montero, Adam Wilk, and Tommy Milone. Gsellman has struggled mightily, evidenced by his 7.07 ERA and the fact he hasn't gotten past the fifth inning more than once this season--three of his seven starts have ended short of five innings, and four times he has exited in the middle of the inning with no outs and one, two, or three runners on base. Montero's start ended short of four innings pitched, as did Adam Wilk (who, after his one appearance on the season, is no longer a Met). Milone went five innings and gave up two runs in his Mets debut, so he's one to watch closely in his next few starts. - "Jeurys Familia saved a league-high 51 games last year and led the N.L. in games finished for a second straight season." This sentence was a paragraph unto itself--the final paragraph in the entry and one without caveats. However, after bringing an even 1.00 ERA and 3-for-3 saves record into the game on May 10th, he left with a 3.86 ERA and his first blown save/loss of the season. A day ago, he underwent surgery and may be able to return later this season. After the blowout loss to the Brewers yesterday, there was understandable frustration with the bullpen and, in particular, Hansel Robles. However, this morning alone, I read two mainstream sports media articles asserting that fingers should be pointed in the direction of the Mets' starting rotation instead. In "The Mets' biggest problem isn't what you think it is," Abbey Mastracco outlines the issue with starting rotation depth... as in, how deep Mets starters are going into games. As she writes about Robles, "Sure, it's not the first time he's done that [give up big runs], but look at where and when he came in, because a reliever shouldn't be in a situation like that [two on and none out] in the fifth inning." As Kristie Ackert put it in her article "Robert Gsellman dud leaves Mets searching for answers," "Over a month into the season, the Mets are not only decimated by injuries but left baffled by their starting pitching." Indeed, the starters must bear significant credit for the state of the season. As I'm sure is true of many who follow the Mets, I've read or heard multiple times recently about how low the Mets are ranking in team ERA, starter ERA, and, more recently, total innings by starters per game. The season is well under way, and it would be folly to be distracted by personas, past success, or possibility. The reality is that the starting pitching needs to stabilize. Guy also wondered about team spirit or morale in the dugout, and while this is most difficult of all to assess in any real way, I haven't gotten a sense that this is an issue. Even with all the injuries and shortcomings this season, they generally look energetic and hopeful and, more often than not, say the right things to the media. I haven't watched every post-game interview, but I have yet to see manager Terry Collins frustrated with his team in any way that would suggest they aren't trying to live up to their potential. Ah, potential: this is where my long-winded answer to your excellent question ends. My theory to explain the Mets season thus far? Well, it's definitely been rocked by injuries--to the point that, save for a second baseman and a center fielder, the 2017 DL-Mets could be an All-Star team. I also agree with the aforementioned journalists, and despite my frustration (as a fan, at home, yelling at the television at times) pointed at members of the bullpen, it is foolhardy to blink at the starting pitching--if Mets starters can't get past the fifth and into the sixth and seventh on a regular basis, this will indeed be a recipe for bullpen fatigue and ultimate failure. Having echoed these points, the only answer I can add to the mix is that I think the 2017 Mets have been menaced by their own potential: by their own understanding of their potential and perhaps even the framing of their potential by those around them, including the media, analysts, and fans. Collins himself has recently pointed to pressure based on what they should be accomplishing. That's the difficulty with potential, as most are likely to have experienced at some point in their lives. It is difficult to quantify, and though it can be held up as a motivation for future success, potential can also be downright intimidating and perhaps even a cause for failure in and of itself. I'll leave you with this: I was watching the SNY program Mets Yearbook for 2011 yesterday, and R.A. Dickey told the media that year something to the effect of--and I'm paraphrasing here--we need to be realistic about what kind of team we are, then be the best version of that. This may be a useful approach for the 2017 Mets as well, and if done soon and well, they still have a chance to inspire a much more memorable and exciting edition of Mets Yearbook for us to enjoy in the years to come. P.S. Click on "Ghost Writer" above to contribute your own question or comment for a future post! SOURCES: - "2017 Baseball Yearbook." Sporting News. Editor: Scott Smith. Vol. 241, No. 2: February 2017. Print. - Ackert, Kristie. "Robert Gsellman dud leaves Mets searching for answers." New York Daily News. Published: May 14, 2017. Web. - Mastracco, Abbey. "The Mets' biggest problem isn't what you think it is." NJ.com. New Jersey On-Line, LLC. Published: May 14, 2017. Web. While it's much too soon to go throwing around words like "fate" and "too late" given April has yet to give way to May, I couldn't help myself. I'm a Mets fan, after all, and I have been since the early 2000s. I watched the Mets be mediocre since before I really understood what a major league baseball team could be or should be, or even what a full season entails. As a Mets fan, I know all too well the self-deprecating, self-identifying "I'm a Mets fan" talk that serves both to bond you with other Mets fans and to protect you from the criticism or pity of fans of those other teams -- you know, the winning ones.
But, as a Mets fan, I also know the joyful and hopeful "Let's go Mets!" chants that were answered in 2015 with resounding success across a season and up to somewhere early in the World Series of that year. I remember that there was a lot of winning early, though there were certainly dry spells and losing streaks. A glance back at the season (with the assistance of baseball-reference.com) reveals that most of the Mets' losing streaks in 2015 occurred outside of divisional play. While I'm not entirely convinced that divisional play is as important as some would suggest it is -- after all, wins and losses are counted the same regardless of the opponent -- I can't deny that dominance in one's division carries a sort of weight that influences fan perception, broadcaster commentary, and even team morale. The 2015 Mets had that dominance, and they had it to start the season. The good news for 2017 Mets fans is that we may have forgotten: the first serious rough patch for the 2015 Mets came in the last few days of April and into May. Starting April 27th, they lost two of three to the Marlins followed by three of four to the Nationals. By mid-May, they had weathered a five game losing streak, and after winning the next three straight, they lost five of six games between May 19th and May 24th. After a seven game losing streak in late June, they dropped below .500 for the first time since their fifth game of the season back in week one. In short, the 2015 Mets knew hard times and came out on top despite it all. Now for the important question: how is this relevant to the 2017 Mets? Well, it's not all good news. For one thing, the eleven game winning streak that the 2015 Mets put together in April served to sustain them as a winning team when the losses came. This year, there's been no such winning streak, and it's becoming difficult to imagine one coming any time in the near future. Still, I would argue that there's more good news than one might expect, save for one troubling element. First, the good news: the 2017 Mets are -- despite the rapidly growing list of injured players -- as good and better than the team of two years ago. If Yoenis Céspedes can avoid the disabled list and Michael Conforto can stay hot, the outfield is better than it was then. With the loss of Lucas Duda and David Wright, Jay Bruce (both offensively and defensively) and Jose Reyes (for now, only defensively) are hardly downgrades. To continue to underrate Asdrúbal Cabrera as a shortstop would be to court madness. And even though Neil Walker probably won't -- and shouldn't have to -- live up to Daniel Murphy's otherworldly stats, he is a steady presence at second base and has hit a couple home runs in the past two days that kept the Mets in the game despite the ultimately disappointing outcome. Finally, if Travis d'Arnaud can avoid the disabled list, he has shown signs of heating up in the big way fans were beginning to worry he could not. So, if the team is comprised of an outstanding and promising group of players, then what is that troubling element, that nagging concern? There is, of course, the losing record (8-10 after Sunday's loss to the Nationals), though that's not it. It's not the list of injuries, and it's not Jose Reyes' slump. These are not insignificant, though it is the intangible consequence of these accumulated frustrations that concerns me. To me, the main concern when the Mets return after an off day on Monday is the energy surrounding the team. As the frustrations mount, will they persevere and find their swagger again? If not swagger, then will they find motivation in the losses -- both to their record and to their lineup -- to rise up and prove their ability despite and/or in spite of the aforementioned frustrations? This is what I'll be looking for on Tuesday. As a final note, I should admit that I did not hold this semi-optimistic outlook during or even just after Sunday's game. However, when dawn breaks on Monday, I'm still a Mets fan, and as Tug McGraw said and as Mets fans have long held: ya gotta believe. Earlier today, I wrote about Zack Wheeler's first home start of 2013. While it was irrelevant to that post, my favorite memories of that game -- aside from finding that, yes, there can indeed be good memories when your team loses a game 13-2 -- came after Wheeler's day was over.
When Wheeler exited, the Nationals were ahead with a score of 5-0. Then, the game got even further out of hand when the Nationals scored six additional runs in the eighth, all attributed to Brandon Lyon. This pushed the score to 11-0, prompting Terry Collins to look for creative ways to save his bullpen. Thus, he turned to backup catcher Anthony Recker to pitch the top of the ninth. Sure, Recker walked Jayson Werth on four pitches and subsequently gave up a home run on a 2-0 count to Ian Desmond, but what I remember best came next. After the two-run blast, Recker was alone on the mound, having seen the Nats' lead expand to 13-0 and having recorded no outs in the inning. I can't imagine what he was thinking or whether Collins was considering taking him out. What I remember was the applause and cheering as Roger Bernadina, the third batter of the inning, came to the plate and flew out on the first pitch. Then, as Kurt Suzuki swung at a 3-1 pitch and flew out for the second out, the crowd's intensity increased. We all knew there was no conceivable scenario in which the Mets could rebound and win this one, but some of us -- and from the sound generated by fans that day at CitiField, many of us -- felt that Anthony Recker getting through a full inning on the mound could serve as a win of sorts, or at least an oddity to tell about later. Next, Chad Tracy stepped to the plate and watched as two consecutive pitches missed the strike zone. Recker wound up and fired the third pitch of the at-bat. Tracy launched the ball into the outfield for yet another flyout. He had done it! Recker had retired three batters in a row to end the inning! Did he end the day with an ERA of 18.00? Yes. But did his performance infuse a level of energy not felt that day since Wheeler's first inning? Absolutely. He treated Mets fans to an unexpected performance that invited us to be excited again, cheering for the underdog. And, for any pragmatists who point out -- and rightly so -- that cheers don't affect the box score or push teams to the postseason, it is worth noting that Brandon Lyon, a legitimate bullpen pitcher with a 4.16 career ERA, faced the same batters as Recker and fared far worse. With the exception of Ian Desmond, who lined out for Lyon and homered off Recker, the four other batters who faced Recker netted better results against Lyon: in particular, the three batters who flied out for Recker. Against Lyon, Bernadina hit a ground-rule double, Suzuki homered, and Tracy walked on five pitches. In retrospect, this was not a good game: for Wheeler, Lyon, or the Mets in general. It was, however, a good day for catchers: Recker came through, recording an inning of work on the mound as well as earning an ovation when he came to bat in the bottom of the ninth (he went on to strike out), and starting catcher John Buck blasted the ball over the left field fence with Josh Satin on base to save the Mets from a shutout loss. Indeed, it was a good day for catchers as well as for any fans who were able to delight in the small victories. In a season when the Mets lost 88 games, that was an important ability for fans to develop. Much has changed in the nearly four years since this game was played. Anthony Recker is backup catcher for the Atlanta Braves, the Mets were in the World Series in 2015, and they made it to the Wild Card game in 2016. Now, in 2017, we're hoping once again to delight in the big victories. SOURCES: - www.baseballreference.com: "Washington Nationals at New York Mets Box Score, June 30, 2013" & "Brandon Lyon." First and foremost, happy MLB Opening Day 2017 (part two?)! Despite the fact that the first three of this season's 4,860 major league match-ups took place yesterday, it didn't feel like baseball had really begun given all the teams waiting until today to play. Regardless, we've finally arrived and the season is fully under way. To mark this occasion, my season-long challenge to post every day begins now, fittingly with my first weekly feature.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - What exactly is the definition of a great closer? In terms of sheer volume, Mets closer Jeurys Familia took top prize in 2016. ESPN agreed in their "MLB Closer Report" for 2016, listing Familia first. The format of this report is simple: a line of stats and rows for each qualifying player, prioritizing -- in this case -- the number of saves. (Only after writing this article did I realize several limitations of this "report," such as not properly registering combined numbers from players who were traded to other teams during the season, and so I turned to the more reliable "Sortable Stats" at MLB.com to revise before posting.) Beyond his league-leading 51 saves, Familia also met or surpassed most of his competition in terms of innings pitched, games, and games finished. Familia's save percentage ranked high at 91.1%, though Zach Britton clearly set the bar with an otherworldly 100% across 47 saves. Despite these numbers declaring Familia's success, he was left off several recent lists of top closers. In "2017's Top 10 Right Now: Relief Pitchers," MLB.com's Mike Petriello noted that uncertainty surrounding Familia's pending suspension removed him from the running. Given that this was published before his fewer-than-some-predicted 15-game suspension was announced, as well as the "right now" filter in the title, this makes sense. Elsewhere, sites such as the New York Daily News and The K Zone have released their "best of" lists for closers entering the 2017 season. With some variation, the top five on these two aforementioned lists are quite similar. For instance, Kenley Jansen, closer for the LA Dodgers, tops both lists, followed by Aroldis Chapman (NY Yankees), Zach Britton (Baltimore Orioles), Mark Melancon (SF Giants), and Wade Davis (Chicago Cubs). Seung-hwan Oh (St. Louis Cardinals) takes fourth place on the Daily News list with Davis in sixth, while The K Zone has Oh in sixth and Davis in fifth. There is clearly some consensus here regarding what makes for an excellent closer. The question remains: what exactly is the definition of a great closer? In terms of quantity, Familia's league-leading number of saves failed to put him on top of or even anywhere inside the top ten on these lists (he ranked 15th on the Daily News' list). In terms of quality, Britton's league-leading 100% in save opportunities failed to push him into first place. Furthermore, Britton's 0.54 ERA over 67 innings pitched was not enough to earn him the top spot. Why do Jansen and Chapman stand out so clearly above the others? For one, their postseason heroics in 2016 certainly demonstrated their worth to anyone willing to notice. Beyond this, though, are a multitude of other statistical accomplishments that are clear upon a deeper dive into the numbers, as noted in the brief write-ups that accompany the Daily News' rankings. These stats -- including K/BB ratio, WHIP, and many more -- serve to complicate rather than to clarify the answer to the closer question. The fact that some articles, like the Daily News list, are published with fantasy baseball participants as their intended audience may serve to add further complexity. (It occurs to me that researching the memorable closers of recent and distant baseball history may be more helpful than a look into a single season, so expect more to follow on this at some point in the future.) For now, suffice it to say that a great closer is a player on whom the manager can call to finish the work his other players have begun. A great closer must be consistent and reliable in spite of the increased pressure of his role, so as to drive any doubt from the manager's mind -- and the fans' minds -- before he steps onto the mound for his first pitch. And, ideally, a great closer should be dominant: he is, after all, the final pitcher you'll see before leaving the ballpark or switching off the television... that is, if he has been successful. SOURCES: - "2016 Regular Season Sortable Stats." MLB.com. CLICK HERE FOR LINK. - Duffy, Mike. "Top 10 Closers." The K Zone: Baseball News and Interviews by Mike Duffy. https://thekzonenews.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/top-10-closers/ - "MLB Closer Report: 2016." ESPN. http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/closers/_/year/2016. - Petriello, Mike. "2017's Top 10 Right Now: Relief Pitchers." http://m.mlb.com/news/article/213303526/miller-tops-top-10-relief-pitchers-for-2017/ - ROTOEXPERTS. "Fantasy Baseball 2017: Top 25 Relief Pitchers." New York Daily News. March 21, 2017. www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/fantasy-baseball-2017-top-25-relief-pitchers-article-1.3004240 So, here I am writing a blog. Yes, a blog. Like no one's ever done that before... The question now is: why? Why, for example, am I writing a blog on a topic about which so many have written? Why do I feel as though I have something to add to this grand conversation?
Well, frankly, I don't think that I do. Wait! Don't click away just yet! This post is merely the first pitch of the outing. More precisely, I should admit that I don't think I have anything to contribute yet. Yet being the key word here, I offer up "Writing for the Fences" as a document of my journey to understand the game of baseball more fully, as well as an invitation to join me for fun, curiosity, and criticism. At times, I'll be writing as a student of America's pastime, but at others, I won't be able to contain my biases and interests as a Mets fan. If possible, I'll be seeking to balance these somewhat competing elements of my background. As the 2017 baseball season begins in a week from today -- 1pm on 4/2 -- I'll be posting my first weekly feature to coincide with opening day. Aside from the weekly feature, there will be daily posts in a variety of forms: Mets-focused updates and rants, "Liner (Drive) Notes" in which I review and discuss baseball in media (movies, music, etc.), "Off the Shelf" posts that focus on baseball in literature (both fiction and nonfiction), personal reminiscences, and more. If you find what I'm doing here interesting, you should also check out @Writ4TheFences on Twitter for another range of coverage. So, for now, my pitch of choice is the knuckleball. It's no trick-pitch -- it takes a meandering and seemingly unsteady path, yet it requires a commitment to craft in order to tame it. Some days it's wonderfully clever and engaging, while on others, it's somewhat off and moreso hit than miss (not in a good way!). For now, that will be my path as well. I hope you'll join me... |
WftF.com is a blog by a baseball fan -- and a Mets fan specifically -- who is learning his way into the wide world of baseball history, current events, debates, literature, and personal connections to the above.
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