Let’s look at the closer situations around the Majors. I’m going to be using a color system, “red” means that there is a likely closer change or a very unstable situation; “orange” means that there are warning signs; “green” means that there isn’t likely to be any change at closer. AL AL EAST TEAM: New York Yankees CLOSER: Aroldis Chapman
Read moreThe trade deadline is fast approaching and it’s about time to see if you need to trade or pick up some closers to not left depleted after. ADD 1. David Robertson, PHI He’s in a good spot to be come a closer again. 2. Reyes Moronta, SFG He’s likely the closer if San Francisco sell as expected. 3. Mark Melancon,
Read moreThe Chicago Cubs signed Craig Kimbrel. This is a good deal for a Chicago team that badly needed a closer. The deal is fair and barring a surprising decline, this should give them a major competitive advantage against St. Louis and Pittsburgh. I don’t think that Atlanta made a mistake not signing him due to the amount of good young
Read moreI looked at the last 10 years for this data and used the criteria of a minimum of 4.0 WAR for starters and 2.0 for relievers. 2008 SP TEAM PLAYER WAR SALARY ARI Dan Haren 6.1 $4,050,000 ARI Brandon Webb 5.7 $5,500,000 BAL Jeremy Guthrie 4.1 $770,000 BOS Jon Lester 6.1 $421,500 BOS Daisuke Matsuzaka 5.4 $8,333,333 CHC Ryan Dempster
Read moreThere was a time when there was no such thing as bullpens and closers. In fact saves! weren’t even an official statistic until 1969. Starting pitchers were expected to pitch the whole game, and relief pitchers were used for spot starts and multi-inning relief appearances when a starter would struggle or get injured. Things changed however… starters went from pitching
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