Nope. There are other factors like fatigue (2-3 hours difference between innings 1 and 9), pinch hitters and mental toughness. A guy like Ranaudo is accustomed to long warmups and pre game routines. A good closer gets the call and in 10 minutes he's ready.
i was thinking of the difference of some pitchers can go five really strong innings, some only two. that is a pretty big difference.
you think YOU have heard about it? i'd be willing to be what ive gotten from one freakin person is equal to (if not greater than) what you've gotten from many!
i wouldn't take that bet, but i have heard from a lot of negative nancies that if LSU can't do what tulane can it's going to be a long season. i finally got to the point where i just told everyone: it's a long season no matter what -- it is baseball. :hihi:
I would also dispute your claim of how many close games we have had over the past 2 seasons. We have had 9 games this season, thus far, that have been decided by 3 or less runs, 7 of which a closer was credited with the save, and 6 of those were Ott. Yeh, I think having Ott as the closer is way too valuable to move him. Also given that the rest of our closers have era’s well into the 5’s I think his 2.35 era is why he stays put. Our bigger problem is having starters that can keep an era down around 3 -3.5, rather than in the 4’s where they are. An even bigger problem is middle relievers that are in the 6-7’s. With the exception of Bradshaw our middle relievers are pretty weak. This is nothing that moving Ott to a starter would correct, especially if he can only go 4-5 innings like the starters we have now. We need then to step up, we need them to go deeper in a game, and we need to keep Ott right where he is.
simple hypothetical question: you're coach Mainieri LSU vs Ole Miss (or any other SEC team) bottom of the 9th, 1 on, one out. LSU up 1 who do you want on the mound? can you honestly think of anyone else on the current staff not named Ott that you would trust in that spot?
According to the logic with the stats and all, Ole Miss may score half a point, or let's just hope it's the other 70% :dis:
