I HATE CLOSERS!!! I've often expressed how I feel closers are the bane of a fantasy player's existence.
However this week has led me to reassess my thoughts on the matter. No, I still hate closers. I've just decided to expand my disdain to include all pitchers of any ilk whether closers, starters, middle relievers, batting practice pitchers, whatever. They all suck.
Hitters bring joy. In one moment, in one at bat, a hitter can salvage any rough day. An 0 for 4 start can be transformed with a 9th inning seeing eye RBI single, followed by a steal, and a run scored on an error. All of a sudden that 0 for 4 becomes a 5-1-1-0-1-1 line that fills up the stat sheet.
Pitchers on the other hand only bring pain. There is no salvaging a tough start to a game. Those baserunners and earned runs never come off the box score. There is no one moment, one inning that transforms a bad day into good. More often than not, that moment or inning does the exact opposite. A brilliant 6 scoreless innings is handed over to a middle reliever who allows two inherited runners to come home tying the score and that great game becomes nothing more than a wasted fail.
I've always knew that my mediocre pitching this year was getting by on smoke and mirrors. Well this week the time came to pay the piper. Following is just a handful of the outings that have soiled the stat lines of many of my teams this week:
Miley - 5 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 2 BB
Nolasco - 5 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 2 BB
Villanueva - 5 IP, 12 H, 5 ER
Gee - 4 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 3 BB
Lackey - 4.1 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 1 BB
Hudson - 5 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 2 BB
Even some of my starters that were drafted as studs pitched more like duds this week:
Hamels - 5 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 2 BB
Price - 2.1 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 1 BB
Cain - 6.1 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 2 BB
Verlander - 2.2 IP, 6 H, 8 ER, 2 BB .... Et tu, Justin?
Then of course there was this epic fail of a stat line to top it all off:
Hughes - 0.2 IP, 6 H, 7 ER, 2 BB
In this picture: The Captain letting Hughes know how much he sucks.
Throw in a few of these egg shell arms joining the list of throwing wounded in Detwiler, Ogando, Pettitte, and Price and it's just been a banner week for my fantasy staffs.
Is it any wonder that I hate pitchers??
Seriously, do we even need pitching categories in this game? I suggest we replace them with more hitting categories.
OBP, Game Winning RBI's, BABIP, whatever. Just because pitching's always been a part of the hobby doesn't mean it's right. The Founders weren't perfect after all. They invented WHIP remember.
By the way, I just noticed Fernando Rodney blew another save. I don't have him or Cobb on any of my teams. I guess for one night I won't hate closers.