Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 10, 2008
Izzy Not the Closer

The Cardinals decided Jason Isringhausen is no longer the closer. They appear to be going for closer by committee:

"He's still prepared to pitch important innings, but for a while we'll try to keep him out of the ninth inning," La Russa said. "If we're playing well, there's still going to be games where you can't cherry pick his situations because if we're playing well, you need your bullpen."

The Cardinals manager said the closing duties will be split between Ryan Franklin and Russ Springer, and that he wouldn't shy from using a left-hander in the role against certain lineups.

"We'll mix and match," La Russa said. "I think all things, everyone rested, Franklin and Springer are the guys that match up the best."

I think in most cases that's the way it should be anyway.


Posted by David Pinto at 03:34 PM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments


Izzy's benching compares favorably to
Ned Yost's sticking with Eric Gagne.
LaRussa's mixing and matching compares
favorably to Yost using Gagne four straight
days earlier this season. On the fourth day,
Gagne gave up a homer to Paul Bako,
which probably should have been a sign
that it wasn't going to be his day.
In the next series against the Cardinals,
Gagne managed to hit Ceaser Izturis on
what would've been ball four. In some of these
games, he's been losing his battles to the bottom of
the order.
Milwaukee has Salomon Torres behind Gagne.
This doesn't sound like much until I heard Larussa
is going to use Ryan Franklin.
How do they do it?
I'm getting serious LaRussa envy.

Posted by: cbuster at May 11, 2008 12:03 AM
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