I imagine being a closer is less taxing on a pitcher than setup man in the sense that once you warm up your closer, you bring him in.  And it’s usually between innings, where as a set up man might sit up and down multiple times depending on the severity of the situation.  I think you bring Robertson back as closer.  He’s going to need to “prove” himself in the position, to appease the mainstream media. 

Next year, I think it would be the ultimate Mo move if he shared closing duties with Robertson.  Or even went out the way he came in, setting up (or, you know, starting).

SG you always hit it on the spot

I rather have Soriano as a closer because the save situations sometimes give closers less high leverage innings than the set up man. Then Robertson could be more valuable in that role than in the closer role.

And as SG says it also improves the chances of Soriano opting out and Robertson will be paid less next season.

[3] I rather have Soriano as a closer because the save situations sometimes give closers less high leverage innings than the set up man.

Robertson as the set up man is definitely the way to go. It get him closer to the real high leverage situation in the game. He’ll be ready for the 8th, but Girardi will probably pull the trigger early a few times and get him in there for 4 outs.

double post

It definitely is a better idea for Robertson to be the set-up guy, but I still feel bad about seeing him “demoted” like this. They should have never made him the closer in the first place.

By the way, from the article “by mid-2012.” Huh?

Yeah, it may seem like a demotion which is the one negative.  That being said, if Mo comes back next year then he’d be “demoted” anyway.

I think if Soriano gets 30 saves he will opt out.

Look at Paplebon - it only takes one idiot.

(unfortunately the Yankees will probably be the idiot)

It’d be awesome if he opted out and they resigned him for 4 years/$60 million.

Well, you know, not awesome, but kind of funny, at least.

Also, I am pretty sure average LI for 9th>>> average LI for 8th so cant see how this is awesome (except from financial view).

It seems pretty clear to me that Expected Wins lower with robertson pitching 8th.

The difference is so small it doesnt really matter but cant see why people seem to be arguing the opposite.

PS to all:

I have just finished my first sabermetrics project (in a different sport).  Wouldnt have been possible without the insight I learned here amongst other places - thanks SG/everyone.

The difference is so small it doesnt really matter but cant see why people seem to be arguing the opposite.

I think the question is whether there’ll be enough situations earlier than the ninth where the leverage is high enough that using Robertson there helps the team more than he would by starting the ninth inning. 

I don’t doubt that the average LI is higher in the 9th than the 8th because that’s the way LI works, but it seems to me that the difference between having Robertson coming in with runners on second and third and no outs vs. Soriano in that same situation is bigger than the difference between having Robertson pitching the ninth vs. Soriano.  You can’t really project the context of how often certain situations will manifest, so it’s really just guesswork.

It’s probably not a huge difference either way.

And if it is not a huge difference, then it is much better to have Soriano pitch the ninth on the off chance he opts out.

I don’t think it would really be a demotion if Robertson isn’t put back into the closer role on his return. He was sharing the role already and if you are sharing a job then get injured and the other guy excels while you are out, well, thems the breaks. You shouldn’t expect it to be handed back to you unless you are a star of some sort and if so you wouldn’t have been sharing the role to begin with.

BTW I believe a good setup man used properly not only has similar or higher leverage numbers as a closer in a traditional usage pattern but also generally gets more innings. By that I mean not opinion but I’m pretty sure I’ve actually seen a study of some sort showing such.

A. Robertson was literally an All-Star just last season.

B. How has Soriano “exceled” since Robertson has been out? He has the third-highest WHIP on the team! He hasn’t given up runs, which is good. And he is certainly not pitching terribly, but nor has he excelled.

Robertson needs a role in the binder and the consciousness of the non-sabrecommunity.  I suggest “fireman”.

[15] If you’re trying to make sense of points made in the article, there’s your mistake.

By the way, talk about a big weekend. The other four teams in the AL East are playing each other, so if the Yankees can take 2 out of 3 against Detroit, they will be guaranteed to gain ground on at least two of the teams in the division.

So, of course, cue the Detroit sweep.

By the way, you have to love the Hughes/Verlander match-up on Sunday. Classic.

[13] I’ve been trying to figure out how the extra $14M in 2013 could somehow help in 2014 and beyond.

2013 staff figures to be Sabathia, Pineda, Hughes, Nova and Phelps at this point; maybe Pettitte will want to keep pitching. Assuming Rivera comes back, it’s him, Robertson, Chamberlain, Logan, Wade, probably Aardsma and then some filler for the other two spots. This obviously excludes Soriano. Rodriguez, Jeter, Cano, and Teixiera in the IF.

C and RF are the big empty spots in 2013, and they need to fill those as efficiently as they can so they can deal with Cano and Granderson in 2014. I don’t know how much sense it’s going to make to pay Martin what he’ll get on the open market if he’s going to put up a .310 wOBA. Not many options out there, though. Mike Napoli’s a free agent in 2013 if he doesn’t get a contract before then.

Then there’s RF. Swisher seems to still be undervalued league wide, but I’m sure whatever he wants from Cashman will be $2-3M too high in AAV and 1 year too long. Then there’s Hamilton which would be cool but probably stupid, and Melky if you’re a believer.

We also probably need a DH. I wonder if Swisher would cost more alone than Melky and a DH that would eclipse Swisher’s value. Seems like it would just as difficult to find a DH like that for 2013 as it was in 2012.

Probably all moot as Soriano won’t opt out.

[18] Reverse lock! 

I’m still not sure who is more frustrating between Hughes and Nova this year. Nova has been more consistently bad, but has shown the ability to miss bats when he’s not giving up XBH. Hughes has been more up and down, yet they’ve managed to basically pitch to the same ERA and FIP (separated by .04 in both stats).

I’m going to pick Hughes as more frustrating because you can never be sure what Hughes we will see.

Soriano has not had a 1-2-3 inning all year. Seriously.

To be fair, one of those non 1-2-3 innings was due to an error made behind him.  But yeah, that is amazing.