RP vs CP

[John_Elway]

I am trying to decide which reliever should be my closer for each league. Is the best attribute to look for in a closing pitcher, Clutch? I was looking for a high Clutch number and low Stamina. Any thoughts on what makes a great closer?

Thanks!

[FluffyTonka]

Strikeouts and stuff are important imo for a closer.

I don't want a contact pitcher to close out my games.

[Ghost Of The Year]

The ''Closer'' designation no longer matters like it used to. You can see who the cpu thinks is best suited to close games by letting that cpu auto generate lineups, and then change that pitchers position to closer. But even then, its not static thru the season, but fluid in that as the season progresses, another reliever who may even have a much lower Overall rating get chosen to be a better candidate as closer. I get why some people like it that way now, but I prefer it to be the old way where if you label even someone who has so low an Overall as a 60 the Closer, he would in fact be used as the closer even if you had another reliever with say, a 90 Overall. Thats just a personal preference on my part tho. But to be honest, I wish they would get rid of the Starting Pitcher, Reliever and Closer position and call them all ''Pitcher''.

[blackhawksfan4ever19]

On a semi related question, if you don't put any pitcher in the long relief spot for all the teams, will the CPU use them better if there was one in that role?

[GoDucks1224]

The biggest thing I look for in a closer is K/9, HR/9, and clutch. I want strikeouts, I want them to not give up homeruns, and I want them to be able to shut the door if they come in with runners on or get out of jams if they have low BB/9. Stuff matters too, obviously. If the guy has high K/9 but throws a low 90's sinker, low 80's curveball, and a changeup... That's not good enough for me. I want mid to upper 90's fastball, and preferably a slider with a lot of break.

[NYJin2011tm]

I’m weird with the closer. They must be RHP lol. There’s more RH batters so I prefer that.

[Cycloniac]

Quote: Originally Posted by GoDucks1224

The biggest thing I look for in a closer is K/9, HR/9, and clutch. I want strikeouts, I want them to not give up homeruns, and I want them to be able to shut the door if they come in with runners on or get out of jams if they have low BB/9. Stuff matters too, obviously. If the guy has high K/9 but throws a low 90's sinker, low 80's curveball, and a changeup... That's not good enough for me. I want mid to upper 90's fastball, and preferably a slider with a lot of break.

Isn't stuff more about k/9 than the pitches themselves though?

[mattynokes]

Choose the guy with all 99 attributes. It's that simple!

Alright, so if that's not an option, my hierarchy is:
Clutch > K/9 > H/9 > Stuff (Break) > HR/9 > BB/9 (Control)

BB/9 (Control): I do not care about walks. If they guys get batters out, the walks won't matter.

HR/9: I'm still a believer that this matters for games that you play. In my last Franchise, I had a guy with a 30 HR/9 and another with an 80 HR/9. Even though the 30 HR/9 guy had the pitches, K/9, and H/9 to shut opponents down, he was certainly susceptible to the long ball. The 80 HR/9 guy had solid pitches (not great), lower K/9, and a good H/9. Giving up homers with him was a rarity.

Stuff (Break): Sure, it'd be great if the pitcher had good control and velocity ratings for his pitches, but I'm primarily concerned with the break. I'll role the dice that his H/9 and K/9 are good enough to offset when the pitch misses the mark to get the extra deception on his pitches.

H/9: This is very important. I don't want to get blooped to death and blow the game, even though I've made pretty good pitches.

K/9: It's no surprise, but give my strikeouts! If my Closer can rack up K's, then he can probably get past any deficiencies in H/9 or his lack of Stuff.

Clutch: I just cannot put a low Clutch pitcher in the Closer (or probably even Setup) role. Low Clutch pitchers seem to get "sad and depressed" when they give up an ordinary single. I don't need that to spiral out of control and lose the game on a two-out rally.