Matt Lindstrom to close again?

by craig on Aug 11, 2009 4:56 PM EDT in News and Rumors

Matt Lindstrom, apparently, is still in line to be the closer this season.

Gonzalez said he wants to see Matt Lindstrom throw on consecutive nights before entertaining the idea of moving him into the closer's role. He said Lindstrom, who has had three scoreless appearances since returning from the disabled list Aug. 1, could get his first opportunity to close if current closer Leo Nuñez pitches on consecutive nights.

Obviously this was written before last night's game because that appearance was anything but scoreless. Lindstrom's display last night once again showed he is too inconsistent to be trusted to closeout games at this point in his career. Yeah, the error didn't help anything but when you are given the ball with a five run lead and only three outs to get and you can't do it, that doesn't say closer to me.

If a middle reliever is inconsistent and has a bad night there is still time to fix the damage, but when it is a closer.... you lose.

Nunez is doing fine.

Tweet Comment 1 comment | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

It's an issue of luck

Truthfully, Nunez and Lindstrom have been about the same, with Lindstrom getting bad luck on balls in play and walking way too many right now. However, he hasn’t given up a lot of homers, and he allows over 50% GB% to ensure that, whereas Nunez is more homer-prone.

To me, it’s pick your poison. But if Fredi keeps mismanaging them, it probably won’t matter.

Marlin Maniac, a Florida Marlins blog

by SFiercex4 on Aug 12, 2009 5:24 PM EDT reply actions