** THIS IS A SHORT, FREE PREVIEW OF THIS WEEK'S PATREON-EXCLUSIVE BONUS EPISODE. TO HEAR THE EPISODE IN FULL, VISIT US AT PATREON.COM/BJHH **

This week, with a certain struggling closer front of mind, we chatted more generally about the role, and some of the reasons we think it seems to have been so immune to change—unlike other areas of the game like lineup construction, and starting pitcher usage—despite modern analytics surely pointing toward more matchup-based deployment of relievers, rather than teams saving their top guys for the ninth inning no matter what.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.