At SI.com on Thursday, Tim Marchman wrote the following regarding a few teams making use of the “closer-by-committee” strategy:
All those who militate for such bullpen reforms as not feeling the need to designate a single closer have really ever argued is that teams should use a strategy that fits their personnel.
While Charlie Manuel is certainly not employing a closer-by-committee strategy [and I am by no means advocating that he should], it was interesting to see him do just what Marchman coincidentally wrote about one day before.
With the lefthander Adam LaRoche due to lead off the top of the 9th for the Pittsburgh Pirates, trailing the Phillies by 2 runs, Manuel elected to leave lefty J.C. Romero in to face him. Not only was the matchup preferrable from a lefty-lefty standpoint, but also from the fact that LaRoche has been 3-4 against Brad Lidge [yes, small sample size caveats do apply, but still, just because it is a small sample doesn't automatically mean it means nothing].
Romero struck out LaRoche looking, Lidge came in and got the save -- albeit with the obligatory home run drama, this time Brandon Moss.
No doubt, Brad Lidge is and should be the Phillies closer. However, that doesn't mean you can't make his job easier for him at times when the game situation allows it, as it did last night. Often, Charlie Manuel's bullpen usage is very paint-by-numbers, but last night, his thinking was perfect.
