The Unbearable Lightness of Being a Closer

Part of being a "smart" sports fan in the 21st century is being able to separate what's frustrating from what really hurts a team. A Ryan Howard strikeout is frustrating, sure, but strikeouts are part of his game. And when his game is a career .959 OPS (141 OPS+), you can ignore the strikeouts (which are really only slightly more damaging than groundouts or line drive outs or going out of the basepath or putting too much pine tar on your bat, anyway). But frustrating plays certainly detract from your enjoyment of the game as a fan, or at least make it more, well, frustrating. Last season, the Phillies' enjoyed a near-perfect season from their bullpen, with Brad Lidge converting all 41 of his save opportunities and closing out seven more games in the postseason. It seemed like the Phillies cruised to the World Series title last year, and that's not just because they went 11-3 in October. They also had a bullpen that didn't blow any games. Last year's po...