This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
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Skip Schumaker has settled on Latz as the closer but not a specialist, with Latz entering in the eighth inning six times in 11 June appearances, and racking up six saves of four outs or more. It’s the kind of usage guys like me have been begging for for years. Latz, developed as a starter, actually opened his year starting against the Phillies and going four no-hit innings. He is a three-pitch pitcher who also mixes in a curve on occasion, and perhaps most important to his current usage, has allowed just a .212/.302/.359 slash line to right-handed batted in his five-year career. This year, he’s posted a 30/6 K/UIBB against right-handed batters, with a .098/.167/.195 line. The .118 BABIP allowed is unquestionably doing a lot of work there, but the 33% strikeout rate and 5:1 K/BB show that it’s not just luck.
Latz may have the endurance to be a unicorn who can go multiple innings and also work back-to-back games. As it stands, with nine multi-inning saves, Latz is in position to be the first pitcher since 2019 with at least ten of those (Josh Hader, 15), and has a shot at the 21st-century mark of 16, set by John Smoltz in 2004. Dan Quisenberry had the most with 35 in 1983, and no one has been over 20 since 1990.
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This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.
You can subscribe to the newsletter for one year for $79.95 using your PayPal account or major credit card. (Zelle users, please email me for details.)
