That bullpen-by-committee, I haven’t seen it work too much. It makes my job harder – Dusty Baker

Oh Dusty.  The Reds have actually used 4 different players to “close” games this year and are somehow in first place.

Here are some other managers who have tempted the Baseball Gods by not forcing one pitcher to always pitch in the 9th inning if the team had a 3 run lead or less.

“Whoever ends up in the ninth inning, We’re back to that. … I think it’s more of you see what they’re lined up with and go from there.” – Robin Ventura

“I’m going into the season pretty much expecting to go committee-wise, I’m not concerned with that, I’m just saying it’s a different way, it’s another way.” – Joe Maddon

“You’re probably going to see both of them, I’m not ready to be pinned down.” – Joe Giardi

It’s always nice to have one closer, but a committee works, too, We’ve done that. We’ll probably have to make slight adjustments as we go – who’s available and who’s not, those types of things. But we’ve got experienced guys who are comfortable pitching late in the game – Bruce Bochy

The bottom line is working the matchups the best you possibly can to keep the other team from scoring. However we do that, the chips will fall where they fall. – Dale Sveum

As far as who my closer’s going to be, it’s just going to be when I get into a ballgame, see who’s fresh, which I like the matchups better. That’s the way I’ll go.” – Davey Johnson

“I feel like we have three closers now we’ll do the best we can to match up.” – Bob Melvin

“Right now, we’re gonna pick some different guys, and let those guys do most of the work. This is a great learning opportunity for Bobby and Pedro, and with Izzy down there they’re gonna have a great guy that they can learn from.” – Terry Collins

We are a committee, Our closer role is a committee. We’re going to try just about anything” – Ron Gardenhire

“So we’ll just match it up, we’ll just play the game out and match it up as we feel like what’s best for us on that particular night.” – Eric Wedge