At the end of the season former Detroit Red Wings assistant general manager Jim Nill left the team to become the general manager of the Dallas Stars. Nill's first big task as GM is to hire a head coach, and today the Stars announced that they hired Lindy Ruff.
It is going to be strange seeing Ruff, who had been the Buffalo Sabres coach since 1997, behind a different bench. Ironically, the last time he coached in a Stanley Cup final it was against the Dallas Stars, who beat the Sabres on a disputed goal by Brett Hull.
Ruff has been a good coach for a long time, so I will give Jim Nill and A for his first major move as GM.
Before the season started most would consider the Detroit Tigers to have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball, and most would have considered Justin Verlander to be the ace of the staff. Unfortunately, Verlander is having a mediocre season but the good news for Tigers fans as that with a 10-0 record Max Sherzer has risen to the occasion to become this year's ace.
Ask a Detroit Tiger and Chicago Cub fans what they think about their closer, and you will likely to either hear a profanity laced tirade or hey will ask, "why is it so hard to find a closer?"
Baseball teams in the 60s and 70s needed three phases, hitting, pitching, and fielding to be successful, but now there is a fourth phase relief pitching and the closer.
Pitch speed and pampering have led to the importance of relief pitching. You no longer find pitchers like Denny McClain who nearly pitched a complete game every time he took the mound, no matter how many pitches he threw. Consequently, to be a good baseball team today it must have good relief pitchers and a closer.
The problem, it seems to me, is that the emphasis for a closer has gone from just getting hitters our to getting strike outs. Half the time a closer is brought in to a game with either the winning run on or at the plate and most often the closer cannot afford to give up contact, let alone a hit or worse.
Basically, closers have to be better than regular pitchers, they must be able to get strike outs when needed, while starting pitchers just need to get outs. So here is the problem, how many pitchers can you find who is capable of getting a strike out the majority of time it is needed? Oh, and to make it extra difficult, tell them they only have a few pitches to get in the groove rather than several innings like most starters get.
What has happened in the last few years is that "strike out" translates to speed, and most often speed has gained at the lost of location and control. How many closers do you see in baseball that have perfect pitching form? Most are falling all over the mound and are never in position to field a ball because they are doing everything they can to put MPH on their pitches.