James, On its face, your comments about relievers makes sense, but just isn't true given the landscape in baseball. Basically, there are two things going on throughout baseball: 1) There aren't enough bullpen arms to go around like you describe. Some teams are lucky to have a reliable closer. Good teams have two or three of those guys. So, basically you cast your lot with guys you hope will strike lightening in a bottle. Take Baltimore last season, they throw a ton of money at several reliever that collectively suck. This year, they add two or three young and cheap relievers that all pan out. Unless you are really adept at it, there is no rhyme or reason to it. 2) I have some simple rules that I apply to relief pitchers that aren't followed by 95 percent of managers. Relievers should always start innings unless the pitcher before him is in a ton of trouble. I hate lefty specialist, I hate righty specialists. I hate specialists. I think some of problems relief pitchers have is that they don't follow the rules you prescribed. Relief pitchers don't always start innings fresh. I also think ERA is a terrible way to judge relievers.

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