Ray King: Closers close for good reasons

ANALYSIS/OPINION

You know that relief pitcher revolution going on this postseason in baseball that has the geeks who would change the game all fired up?

This one:

“Bullpen Strategies are A Changin’” — the headline in Sports of Earth.

“Big Relief: Baseball’s Bullpen Revolution” — the Wall Street Journal headline.

The trend reshaping baseball, according to the writers, is managers shaking up the pitching rotation — even bringing their closer in for middle relief, if that’s where the game’s on the line. 

Ray King isn’t buying it.

“I don’t think so,” King said.

Ray King made the walk from the bullpen to the mound 593 times over his 10-year major league career. He has been around, pitching for the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee Brewers, Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Colorado Rockies and from 2007 to 2008, the Washington Nationals. King pitched in 14 postseason games for the Braves and Cardinals.

Those are his numbers, the information that we have about King. His mind, though — the knowledge that he acquired making those 593 appearances as a left-handed relief specialist — tells him that this so-called revolution will pass.

What complicates the revolution are people like King — human beings who get in the way of the statistics and front office formulas. Or, simply put, it takes a different kind of guy to pitch in the ninth inning than it does in the seventh inning. And it takes a different kind of guy to get three outs than it does to get six outs.

“You look at the season,” King told me in a conversation on this week’s edition of my podcast “Cigars & Curveballs” on The Washington Times website (available on iTunes and Google Play). “How did you use your bullpen during the season? You hope your starter went six or seven (innings), then you go to your seventh inning guy, your eighth inning guy, then your closer.

“Now (postseason) you are asking your closer to get six outs,” King said. “How many times did he get six outs during the season? When you’ve got all this adrenaline going to get three outs and now you’ve got to get six outs, it makes a difference.

In nearly every conversation I’ve had with a relief pitcher, the one thing they have told me that is important to them is to know their role before they head for the mound, and to be able to prepare for that role.

Their biggest criticisms of managers are those who panic and fail to keep those relievers in those roles.

In other words, these human beings are not interchangeable.

“It’s kind of like a microwave,” King said. “You set the microwave for three minutes and then it’s done. Then you have to restart it. You pitch in the eighth inning and then come out and pitch again in the ninth, it’s not the same. I agree with what Buck (Showalter) did (by not using closer Zac Britton in the Orioles 11-inning loss to Toronto in the wild card game). You’ve used your best guy in the seventh or eighth inning, then you have to use a guy who is not used to pitching at the end of the game. You want your best guy to pitch at the end of the game, not in the middle of the game. You use him, then you have nothing left.”

Of course, King, who appeared in 593 games as a major league reliever, will be ridiculed for this. The critics will light their slide rules on fire and light King up, because for them, this is a holy war and Ray King, a 10-year major league relief pitcher, is a heretic.

“As a closer, you’ve got that adrenaline going, and you are thinking in your mind, three outs,” King said. “You are fired up. Now you go in the eighth inning, let’s say it doesn’t go one-two-three. You have to work a little and throw maybe 25-30 pitches. Then you have to go sit down and, if they don’t pinch hit for you, maybe you have to go out again? This is a mental game.”

Then King presented this evidence to back his claim — a little known remarkable note about pitching coach Mike Maddux.

“Mike Maddux puts his hands right around the neck of a pitcher (when he visits the mound) to check the pulse to see if you are calmed down or fired up,” King said. “This game is all about reactions.”

Maddux — one of the most respected pitching coaches in the game — was the Washington Nationals pitching coach this season.

I’m not sure how this battle over the use of relievers helps the game in any way. Starting pitchers are the rock stars of a game that doesn’t have enough rock stars. Increasing the power of two-inning relief pitchers may be a fix for stats junkies, but it does nothing to make the game more watchable. And closers are the most unique stars in all of sports. In no other game does a player make a grand entrance before the crowd with the sole mission of saving a victory.

No one comes to the ballpark saying they can’t wait to watch Andrew Miller pitch the fourth inning.

• Thom Loverro hosts his weekly podcast “Cigars & Curveballs” Wednesdays available on iTunes and Google Play.