Piniella, Geren and Defined Relief Roles

The tradition in baseball, for the past few decades, has been for each team to choose one defined closer at the back end of their bullpen. Heading into the 2009 season, there is one team who has already intentionally chosen to head into the season with two closers, and they are both right-handed.

Oakland manager Bob Geren has decided that Joey Devine and Brad Ziegler will both handle closing duties this season. Cubs manager Lou Piniella -- a grizzled veteran skipper who, yes, can be a bit stubborn -- believes that's not necessarily the best way to run a bullpen.

"That just hasn't worked in baseball with a particular team," Piniella said. "If you have a lefty and a righty who were dominant from each side, you might look at it differently. I think it works well for everyone to have a role and know their role."

Generally speaking, closers tend to be overrated because of the save statistic. How difficult can it really be to get three guys out before allowing three runs to score. As a Cubs fan, I can tell you Carlos Marmol was more important to the team's success last season than Kerry Wood. It's very possible Jose Arredondo and Scot Shields will be more important to the Angels this year than Brian Fuentes.

What Piniella means, though, is that players should have defined roles. These guys all know the role they serve on the team. Using my Cubs example from last season -- that is, after all, my wheelhouse -- when the Cubs held a two-run lead in the sixth inning, Marmol knew he would need to be ready to either get the Cubs out of a mess in the seventh or to shut down the opposition in the eighth. Wood knew he needed to be ready for the ninth.

I'm sure you could argue that before each game, Geren can tell Devine and Ziegler what roles they'll be serving on that particular day. That's additional work to be done for each game, and it's a shift in mentality for each player on a game-by-game basis. It's just not practical.

I'd trust Piniella. He's won with some stellar relief pitching before. He had the "Nasty Boys" in Cincinnati -- yet he still had a defined closer in Randy Myers. He had Marmol setting up for Wood last season, but he stuck with Wood even through early season struggles. Sure, Rob Dibble had 11 saves in 1990 and Marmol accrued 7 last year. That's the luxury you have with multiple studs at the back of the 'pen.

The job of a manager is to make decisions. I'd say Geren needs to be decisive and give his two late-inning relievers a definite job. If he wants a 30/10 split in saves in order to keep his "real" closer fresh, so be it. Just make a call.