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What’s In A Closer?

Indeed the hot stove of Major League Baseball is piping hot with signings, arbitration and trades galore.  We see teams overpaying for players usually considered above average, but nothing great.  Teams create havoc for their budget in the future when they sign 27-year-olds to five-year deals that never work out.  Ah, the smell of free agency in the off-season.  

The market seemed starving at the outset of the off-season with teams desperately needing help across the board. The Yankees found themselves in the red, owing $85 million to shareholders while needing a reliever or two to replace Mariano Rivera’s set-up man, Tom Gordon. The Mets needed a new pair of relievers to produce similar numbers to the departed Roberto Hernandez and minimized Braden Looper. The Red Sox sought protection to their closer role with the health and mental confidence of Keith Foulke still in question.

Stoking the stove, the Blue Jays signed B.J. Ryan for $47 million. In New York, the Mets spent $43 million on Billy Wagner. Most surprisingly, the Yankees shelled out $19.4 million for Mike Myers and Kyle Farnsworth, giving the Bronx Bombers a strong tandem of lefties to supplement Rivera. The Pirates acquired Roberto Hernandez and Damaso Marte to clean up their middle relief. Are some of these teams overpaying for closers like the Blue Jays did this year for Ryan or teams have in the past for guys like Octavio Dotel or Danny Graves?

The trend is becoming all too familiar to baseball fans: teams overpay players because they are the only ones available, so everyone wants them. Is B.J. Ryan, a reliever who pitched as a closer for one season and only 42 career saves, worth $47 million? We all know the Blue Jays expanded their payroll, but still, they dished out $102 million on a relatively new closer with only one season of experience and a disgruntled, oft-injured, mediocre pitcher with an average of 12 wins a season in A.J. Burnett.

The trade for Lyle Overbay is the only understandable move so far by J.P. Ricciardi, GM of the Jays. Yet, in acquiring the smooth-swinging lefty, the Jays gave up one of their hottest young pitching prospects in Dave Bush. With the three, four and five spots in the line-up filled by 20-plus homerun hitters, the Blue Jays at least have a snowball’s chance of competing in the AL East. The problem is that they were so excited about the new payroll they forgot to spend it wisely.

How do you spend wisely in the off-season? First, avoid paying a closer over $8 million a year unless they are Mariano Rivera, Brad Lidge, Eric Gagne, Bill Wagner or Trevor Hoffman. These five pitchers are the only pitchers in the Major Leagues that have proven to be dominant regardless of the situation. They have their letdowns, such as Lidge in 2005 playoffs or Rivera in 2004, but they are scary enough to force opponents into thinking, “We have to be winning by the 8th inning or we are in trouble.” That’s a lot of pressure to put on a club when they are hitting against Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Odalis Perez or Jake Peavy before the closer comes in.

That’s how we arrive at the main point: Not every starter can pitch seven or eight innings of every game. Closers do not pitch every night, even in the toughest situations. We see middle relievers come in with one out, two runners on base, and his team clinging to a one-run lead. That’s where the money needs spending: finding pitchers that thrive in those situations.

Credit the Yankees for getting it right, in spite of their financial problems. They know as well as any team that they need pitchers to fill in the time between Jaret Wright’s fifth inning exit and Mariano Rivera’s eighth or ninth inning entrance. Using the Yankees as an example, all their relievers except Rivera accounted for 38 decisions in 2005, almost one-fourth of all decisions. In those 38 games, the relievers were 19-19. The Yankees might have won 100 games or more if they had solid middle relief like the Angels. Therefore, instead of shelling out $50-million or more in the off-season on another mediocre, unproven starter, they acquired relievers that will secure those middle innings and help the Yankees win more games in the tough AL East.

A closer usually steps onto the mound with no one on, no one out and his team ahead. The position is merely for middle relievers with a little extra gas on the fastball. Do you think that Mariano Rivera would do well in the sixth inning with the bases loaded and no outs, clinging to a one-run lead? Of course, he would. On the other hand, do you think that Brendan Donnelly or Scot Shields would save 40 games if they pitched for the Tigers? Of course, they would.

The point is that teams cannot afford to dish out cash on unproven pitchers that classify themselves as “closers.” Some might ask, “Why not take the gamble on a guy who shows some promise?” I respond, “Why not spend less on Roberto Hernandez or Todd Jones, proven veterans with experience in pressure situations?” I guess we will never know why the closer position is placed on the same pedestal as a quality hitter or a good starter, but we will always see the B.J. Ryan’s and Braden Looper’s of the world sign for four or five years.

3 replies on “What’s In A Closer?”

how do you know if a closer… … will turn out like Rivera or Gagne, etc? Also, just fix that first paragraph, you tabbed all the other paragraphs except that one.

Francisco Rodriguez Is one helluva scary guy, too…. and he has a ring too, which Gagne, Lidge, Hoffman, and Wagner don’t have

otherwise, good stuff, and i agree, because i think probably 80% of pitchers can pitch one inning a game    for sixty-five games a year, max

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