Excellent Point

David Pinto makes an excellent point:

Something I've talked about before is the more often a manager changes pitchers, the more likely he's going to find one having a bad day. If a reliever is brought in and pitches well, and hasn't reached a credible pitch limit, why not let him continue?

Sadly - I can see two reasons why the status quo is not broached. First - the manager would be accused of messing with the confidence of the closer in the media and on talk radio. Second - the manager would be accused of attempting a "closer by committee" set-up which has become three most misunderstood dirty words in baseball today.

It will take a manager secure enough in his position with a closer secure enough in his confidence and who puts team wins above personal numbers to make this happen.

The current situation in Atlanta may prove to be the perfect setting to break the now traditional role of a 3-out closer. When John Smoltz and Rafael Soriano are both healthy - the younger Soriano will defer to the Hall of Famer Smoltz who is not a fragile ego guy in the least. Smoltz for his part will not mind if Soriano is cruising along and stays in for the 9th inning for the save. Smoltz wants to "conserve the bullets left in the gun" and he and Bobby Cox have seen too many blown saves in Atlanta to care about orthodoxy.