Cliff Politte, you worthless piece of garbage

[jdh]

How can a closer possibly deserve to be a closer if he can't hold a three run lead? He now has a 6.23 ERA and has blown 4 of his 14 save chances. How can they possibly leave this garbage dump of a pitcher as their closer and who would replace him?

[Madison]

GGGGGRRRRRRRR.................... He killed me too. What on Earth is the guy doing!!! Save the game, you had a 3 run lead. DOH!!!! <img src=/forums/images/smiles/kiss.gif>

[Nomar4prez]

brought my era up to 4.31 from 3.68....i am now gonna lose whip and era b/c of him!!!...grrrrrrrr

[Guest]

yes, I had a sure victory in ERA and WHIP, now I am gonna have to sweat it out.

[kcs261]

Is Politte worth holding? He's on a good team, but this killed me last night, too. I definitely don't want to do anything knee jerk. Toronto is playing so well that a decent closer should be able to scoop up mega saves on that team. But an ERA above 6??? Ouch! I'll probably hold him & give him 1 or 2 more appearances. But if in the next couple, something like this happens again, I may cash in. Any contrary views?

[jdh]

Whether he's worth holding or not depends on what is available on the FA wire for closers. As you said, the Jays are a decent team and I wouldn't drop him for a Mike DeJean or a Franklyn German, based just on potential save chances. If there are no other closers out there, you can't justify dropping him because you'd be giving a free saves source to one of your opponents.

I also don't think that he can possibly continue to be this bad. If you look at his career stats, after his first two seasons, which were back and forth between the minors, he has never posted an ERA greater than 4.00, and last year his WHIP was 0.99. Also, his current ERA is greatly inflated by these last two appearances at Great American. If you take those two disasters out, his ERA is under 4.00. I kind of think you have to hold onto him, but maybe bench him at least until the Jays dump his as their closer.

[Guest]

I have DeJean and I'd rather keep him over Politte.

[Madison]

In one league I'm in closers are such a high commodity I have to keep him.

[kcs261]

Julio and Jimenez are both on the WW in my league. I could also dump him for starting pitchers like Kinney or Harang -- because I really don't need Politte as a closer. So I'll leave him on the bench for now unless anybody thinks that any of the above four guys are worth snagging over Politte now. That said, the last thing I want to see is Politte rip off a bunch of saves if I waive him. So I'm inclined to hold him through the week to see what he does in the next couple of appearances. Then, make a definitive decision on Friday.

[jdh]

I wouldn't dump him for Julio, because the Orioles don't have a good enough team for him to get lots of save chances. Jimenez is a bit different, the Rockies are a .500 team, and he did get 41 saves last year with a decent ERA. The scary thing with Jimenez is the Coors Field appearances though, although his ERA at Coors last year was better than his ERA on the road.