In one of the final closer battles to be determined this spring, the Colorado Rockies today announced that Huston Street would be pitching the ninth inning in save situations and Manny Corpas would be his set-up man.Huston Street, who came to Colorado in the Matt Holliday trade, started the spring slowly as he suffered from a quadriceps problem. But he caught fire of late and has pitched five scoreless innings in his last six pitched. For the spring, Street has a 5.23 ERA in 10.1 innings with four strikeouts and two walks.
Corpas, who lost the closer role last season to Brian Fuentes, was thought to have been the favorite to win the job through most of the spring. In nine spring innings, Corpas has given up only one earned run and has struck out five batters while walking four.
Even though both pitchers saw their walk rate climb a bit last season, Street showed better strikeout numbers with an 8.87 strikeouts per nine inning ratio versus Corpas' 5.65 mark, which is one attribute that you want in your closer. Street also has much more experience in the closer role as he has 94 career save instead of 23 for Corpas.
