I pride myself on posting a lot without having actual readers. I more or less write this crap for nobody, at least noone that I know. I've said it before and I'll say it again, my posts per readers ratio has to be the highest in all of blogging, at least baseball specific blogging, I'd say on a weekly basis it's 7/1. With that said, I haven't kept up my 30+ posts per month pace so far in March. That's kind of weird considering they have actually started to play some games in March, regardless if they count or not. However, have no fear because this is not a trend.
Back to some baseball stuff, Morrow was named the closer today. This really affects fantasy people more than it would baseball people, but so what. If, and I'll use the cliche that's a pretty huge if, Morrow can stay healthy he'd be a great closer. I loved his starting potential this year especially before he got hurt and a little less after, but still liked him a lot. I figured if he threw 160 innings he could strike out close to 180 with great ratios because of Safeco Field and the defense behind him, the Mariners have Adrian Beltre, replaced Ibanez with Endy Chavez, and essentially have 3 CFs in the outfield. That will still obviously help him as a closer, but not as much in less innings. The Mariners shouldn't be that good, but neither should the division. They have to win the close games, and if they do, Morrow will put up a lot of saves.
This situation seems common nowadays. Team brings up gunslinging pitching prospect, team puts him in relief because of innings, pitcher dominates/shows dominance in that role, pitcher has some sort of injury even though they were trying to be cautious in the first place, debate on which role to use the pitcher. Jon Papelbon had a ridiculous year as the Red Sox closer in 2006 (35 saves ERA under 1), but his arm got tender at the end of the year. Team tries him out as a starter the next offseason, but early on he decides he wants to close. Joba Chamberlain comes up in 07 as a reliever so the Yankees can use all their resources, he does amazing despite that one bug game in Cleveland, next year there's a debate if he should start or close, he gets hurt comes back that year as a reliever, new debate again this year which role he should be in.
The point I guess I'm trying to make here is that teams always try them out as starters. Starters are significantly more valuable than relievers, and teams know that. I don't care how important the 8th and 9th innings are, 65 innings of those can't equal 180+ innings of a starter. Papelbon, Morrow, and Joba all showed dominance as relievers, and in all three cases the team still tried to use them as a starter. The only time they make them relievers is because of injury, a doctor telling them it would benefit their health from being a reliever, or the pitcher prefers to relieve.
I say this because recently I got into that typical New York debate on what to do with Joba with a friend. He said reliever and as you would expect I said starter. I don't think Joba, or any other pitcher in a similar situation, should be a starter with no ifs ands or buts (lol butts), but I do think they should be given the chance to start with no ifs ands or buts (lol butts). You are hurting yourself if you don't give them that chance. It's not unlikely that they get hurt because all pitchers do, but it's highly unlikely they get hurt to the extent where they can't just come back as a reliever. The Mariners have no closer and Morrow is currently hurt, ok put him in the pen. Jon Papelbon had a full season as an established closer and after trying to make him back into a starter he decided he wanted to close, ok with no other closers as an option put him in the pen.
But Joba? He has the best closer of all time behind him and he didn't get hurt last year because he was starting not relieving, why put him in the pen?
I don't need to go through the arguments for or against this any longer. At this point everyone has their opinion and they are unlikely to change. I just wanted to show you how the Morrow situation isn't evidence as to why Joba should relieve, in case you get into any arguments with your friends about this, and they try pulling that out.
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