Closer Must Be Offseason Focus
Regardless of how the Florida Marlins finish this season, miss the playoffs, booted in the first round, or magical run; when the off-season rolls around the Marlins need to make a closing pitcher their TOP priority. Forget signing Dan Uggla long term, forget Mike Jacobs, forget Jorge Cantu, the core piece of every teams bullpen is a closer who can come out night after night and do exactly what you pay him to do, dominate.
Kevin Gregg is not that guy, and can’t be that guy for the Marlins. Not now, not in the future. Lets briefly compare him with some of the more prestigious closers in the league. Gregg is 10th in the majors with 29 saves this season, however, among the top 10 closers he has the MOST walks and the FEWEST strike outs. Kevin Gregg is effective (when he’s effective I should say) because he has a great fastball and a very good slider, his problem however is that very good slider. Gregg doesn’t have the greatest control on that slider, sometimes it makes batters look ridiculous, other times it lands in the dirt before the mound resulting in wild pitches.
Kevin Gregg is just too inconsistent, the Marlins’ loss on Tuesday night showed it. He had a 9-6 lead going into the bottom of the 9th and absolutely imploded giving up 5 hits, walking 1, and giving up 4 ER and the game. For a team needing a win to get them rolling and keep the pace, a loss instead to one of baseball’s worst teams could be the straw that breaks Florida’s back and ends their wonderful season.
Bottom line, this season’s issues, particularly in the stretch run have been the bullpen. Sure, the starting pitching hasn’t been stellar, but they’ve more often than not kept their team in the game and 7 out of 10 games the bats are hot enough to offset it. The bats and the starters can’t do anything to prevent the bullpen from imploding and losing a game.
In the end, you just never know which Kevin Gregg will grace the mound each night, thats why he’s not really a top 10 closer despite the ranking. When Fransisco Rodriguez, Joe Nathan, Jonathon Papelbon, and Mariano Rivera come on to close a game for their team, the other team is shaking, not the closer’s manager. Those teams know their closer will get it done, when he doesn’t its just the world evening out because nobody is perfect, even those men make mistakes once in a blue moon. When Gregg takes the mound we all have to hold our breath, well I’m turning purple, we need a new closer.
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