Saturday, May 30, 2009

Part-time Closer

I wonder if the "part-time closer" will ever come back into vogue. It seems every team has just one closer who gets about 90% of the team's saves these days. i Knod of think it would be more democratic to spread the glory around a bit. The quintessential part-time closer of the 1980s was Tom Niedenfuer. He had between 9 and 19 saves every year from 1982-88. That's seven years in a row of being neither the full-time closer (who you would except to have at least 25 saves) or just a set-up or mop-up man (who would rarely have more than 5 saves). Niedenfuer finished his career with a respectable 97 saves in 484 appearances.

No comments: