Question About Some Current Closers

[bmd]

Out of the following closers that have taken over for injury, etc. (Urbina, Street, Dempster, Ryan Wagner) how many of these guys do you think will still be closing games at season's end?

[Q]

Ryan Wagner should be the closer by the end of the year and for the future.
Huston Street will probably get the closer job for good when Dotel is traded.
Ryan Dempster will lose the job to Joe Borowski when he becomes ineffective.
Urbina will give the job back to Percival when he is back but could be traded.

[strong]

Ryan Wagner should be the closer by the end of the year and for the future.
Huston Street will probably get the closer job for good when Dotel is traded.
Ryan Dempster will lose the job to Joe Borowski when he becomes ineffective.
Urbina will give the job back to Percival when he is back but could be traded.

Agree on Wagner and Urbina.
Disagree on Street and Dempster:
The A's have said they don't like Street in the closer role this year, so my opinion is that they will take it easy with the young kid. He's closing now because Dotel and company are all hurt. Dotel will come back from injury and will probably regain the role... Not to mention the other bullpen personel when they return. But do keep on eye on Street: He might excel even at his young age, and the A's might keep him there... But he will have to be lights out in his little test run for them to keep him in the closer role. And they will have to trade Dotel. Street closing this year is a long shot, IMO. Maybe they'll let him close September as a trial run when the year is over...
Dempster has earned some job security and has been told by the Cubs he is their man for the year. Barring a meltdown, I would heed this and assume it's Dempster's job as long as he is decent. The Cubs seem to have little faith in Borowski for that role and with good reason: Borowski is an arm surgery and a year and half removed from being a decent closer. His velocity is down even further and it's doubtable he'll be an effective closer, let alone a solid setup man. Borowski homers need to go home.

[djack909]

good job Strong

[GotowarMissAgnes]

Dempster has earned some job security and has been told by the Cubs he is their man for the year. Barring a meltdown, I would heed this and assume it's Dempster's job as long as he is decent. The Cubs seem to have little faith in Borowski for that role and with good reason: Borowski is an arm surgery and a year and half removed from being a decent closer. His velocity is down even further and it's doubtable he'll be an effective closer, let alone a solid setup man. Borowski homers need to go home.

I know Dempster has been told he's the man, but how has he earned some job security?

Has he earned it by his 1.7 WHIP and 5.09 ERA this year? Or maybe by the fact that other than 20 innings last year, he hasn't had an ERA below 4.95 or a WHIP below 1.5 since 2000? Dempster is a year and a half removed from TJ surgery and 5 years removed from the one decent season he ever had.

If one season 5 years ago earns him job security, why doesn't Borowski get the same?

[ravenmad22]

Dempster has earned some job security and has been told by the Cubs he is their man for the year. Barring a meltdown, I would heed this and assume it's Dempster's job as long as he is decent. The Cubs seem to have little faith in Borowski for that role and with good reason: Borowski is an arm surgery and a year and half removed from being a decent closer. His velocity is down even further and it's doubtable he'll be an effective closer, let alone a solid setup man. Borowski homers need to go home.

I wouldn't listen to whatever the Cubs say about who is the closer for the "rest of the year." They can't decide who the closer is from week to week, let alone the entire year. Dempster has bigtime control issues, and has for this entire career. While I believe it will take a bad outing or two for Dempster to lose the job, there will come a time where his walks and lack of control will cause him to blow a few saves. Reports of borowski's velocity are greatly exaggerated. I watched him pitch a few nights ago and he was hitting 89-90 with some regularity. I wouldn't count him out simply because he's a favorite of Dusty, had the role in spring training before the broken hand injury, and doesn't have the control problems of a Dempster.

It's "doubtable" (that made me laugh) that Dempster has all of a sudden learned how to harness his extremely wild stuff. He's on a much shorter leash than what you think.

[Q]

Even though they want to take it easy with Street it is still a pretty telling sign that when Dotel isnt able to close that Street became the primary closer. I dont see any reason to believe that the same thing won't happen again when Dotel is traded.

Dempster may have done well with his first five save opportunities, even though the second was very shaky and he blew the first one, he has not been pitching any better. He has 3 strikouts and 2 walks since being named the closer he has just got much more lucky with hit percentage. He is still the same pitcher that has a 5.09 ERA, 1.70 WHIP and less than a 2 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio so far this season.