Making The Case For Closer By Committee

Over the last 20 years or so, due partially to the creation of the bullpen specialist (i.e. Ray King), the role of the closer has become more clearly defined, perhaps overly so. This, coupled with starting pitchers throwing fewer and fewer innings, had placed more emphasis on having one, shutdown guy to call upon in the 9th to record those final three outs.

Texas has had a few of those guys; closers with the stamina and enough of a rubber arm to be called an 'ace'. Jeff Russell and John Wetteland were both All-Star closers for the Rangers in the late 80's and 90's, posting several 30+ save seasons. Frank Francisco was to be that guy for the Rangers this season.

After C.J. Wilson was lost for the season during the second half of the 2008 season, Frankie stepped in and was nothing short of dominant. His high quality of play carried over into this season, at one point running out an 18 inning scoreless streak.



But then Frankie's elbow started bothering him and he went on the DL for a 15 days. C.J. Wilson held down the fort while he was away, slipping effortlessly back into his role as the 8th inning set-up man when Francisco returned. Then Frankie went back on the DL for a tired arm. Wilson again came in and did the job until Francisco made his way back. But when Texas' oft-injured closer went on the DL for the 3rd time this season, this last time with walking pneumonia, I began to ponder the idea of the Rangers going to a closer-by-committee bullpen.

Let me first start by saying that I understand that most true blue, dominant championship caliber teams have that one go-to guy for the 9th inning, whether it's Mariano Rivera in New York, Francisco Rodriguez during his years with the Angels, or Dennis Eckersley during his Hall of Fame-like run with the Oakland A's in the 90's.

But there have also been instances where closer-by-committee has worked very well. In 1990, the Cincinnati Reds duo of Rob Dibble and Randy Myers combined for 12 winds and 42 saves, rolling all the way to a World Championship. Jesse Orosco and Roger McDowell combined for 22 wins and 43 saves in helping the New York Mets to the 1986 World Championship. Why couldn't it work here in Texas?

With roughly six weeks to go in the season, the combo of C.J. Wilson and Frank Francisco have a pitching line of 6-7, 31 saves, 3.26 ERA, 98 Ks in 85 2/3 innings, which projects out to 10 wins and 44 saves over the course of a complete season. The fact that both pitchers are power arms only adds to their probability for continued success.



Another set of stats makes the strognest case of all for having the duo split the closers role.

Take a look at opponents OPS (On-Base Percentage + Slugging Percentage) against Frank Francisco and how dramatically the numbers swing in the Rangers favor based on the number of days rest the reliever is able to get in between appearances:

0 days rest: .905 OPS
1 days rest: .682 OPS
2 days rest: .276 OPS

These are truly shocking numbers and give a very clear picture of just how much more effective the Rangers bullpen is when working with the two-headed monster of Wilson and Francisco, rather than going with the hard/fast rule of Francisco as the lone closer.

Whether Texas begins to lean in this direction remains to be seen. I'm unaware of how Francisco might react to splitting closing chores with Wilson but my feeling is that Texas' bullpen is a very tight unit and have enough veteran leadership out there to make it work.

Time will tell if the Rangers give in to the numbers.