Miami Marlins Meltdown: Six Takeaways From Atlanta

1. Brad Ziegler was bad, but not as bad as the decision to pitch him in the 9th in the first place.

Manager Don Mattingly did what many of today’s managers do. He used his closer in a non-save situation. In all my years of watching baseball in-game culture evolve, this is about the biggest “kiss of death” to a ball club. I know, I know, he has to keep the 38-year old sinkerball specialist active, so that he doesn’t get too stale. But Ziegler had already thrown Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday this week for the Miami Marlins. He’s only faced 83 batters all season, so he doesn’t pitch a lot anyway. And everyone (except MLB managers) knows that closers in a non-save situation is a kiss of death.

By the way, according to Baseball Reference, Ziegler’s stats in save and non-save situations in 2018 break down like this:

SAVE SITUATIONS:  7 2/3 IP, 6 H, 0 BB, 1 ER, 1.25 ERA, W-L record 0-0

NON-SAVE SITUATIONS: 12 1/3 IP, 21 H, 3 BB, 15 ER, 11.16 ERA, W-L record 0-3

BOTTOM LINE: Ziegler has not blown a save this season, but he has blown up consistently when entering a game in a non-save situation.  I suspect many other closers’ numbers look similar.