Quote Originally Posted by 50PoundHead View Post
There gets to be a lot of buzz among some in the stat community about the value/use of a closer, but I agree wholeheartedly with O'Flaherty here. A solid guy slotted for the 9th inning allows the rest of the pen to move up to situations in which there is less leverage. I don't know if that is necessarily easier, but I always think you use your best bullet for the highest leverage situation and that's almost always in the 8th or 9th innings. It may not have made a difference last night, but in the long run having a "nail down" guy is really important.
This is a very important distinction to make. The BP should be used such that the best arms are used in the highest leverage spots against the batters they have the most platoon advantage against (or some other advantage).

Since most people are pretty dumb, and the 9th inning in a close game is typically among the highest leverage points in the game, the "closer" is used in the 9th as a matter of simplifying things for those dumb people.