ESPN MLB

A bullpen is a living, breathing organism with a personality unto itself. Each part of a bullpen desires a role. Each part likes stability and wants a plan for how to approach each day. This is why the closer-by-committee plan doesn't work very well.

A closer is the heart and soul of a bullpen; if he is well, the rest of the pen can usually sustain itself. If a closer is struggling, it puts the rest of the bullpen and likely the rest of the team in flux. Yankees closer Mariano Rivera struggled terribly to start the season; this led to Tom Gordon, the set-up man, struggling. And that led to the rest of the bullpen's pitching poorly.

In fact, closers who struggle can subconsciously change the way starting pitchers perform. Starters may try to pace themselves so as to pitch a complete game instead of leaving it all out there in critical situations earlier in the game. Hitters on the team of the struggling closer approach their at-bats differently, too, feeling they need to provide more of a cushion heading into the ninth inning. Therefore, they try too hard in their at-bats.

The entire Yankees team struggled for a while to start the season, which in some ways was directly tied to Rivera's struggles in the ninth inning. Now that Rivera is settled, so are the rest of the Yankees, and life has returned to normal.

Here are a few clubs whose closers have struggled mightily in the first two months of the regular season:

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider