Atlanta has already said the Reitsma will not close and have led me to believe that the candidate is not Devine and resides elsewhere. Possible suspects: I've heard them inquire about Julio (a former Brave), Lidge, Percival (health hazzard), Urbina (if his mess every gets straightened out), Nathan (a FA after this season and Min probably can't resign him), Crain (need something that Min wants (Betemit?), but Nathan may leave), & Dotel (mid-season).
Cincinnati has long said that Ryan Wagner is their closer of the future. I think he could get it done but needs to find some confidence and going straight to closing won't get it. Weathers is not the answer and they really don't have a closer inhouse. There has been talking of Cincy swapping Dunn for Lidge (which I think is dumb on their part). There are plenty of pitchers with closer qualities blocked by established closers (League, Capellan, Adams, Wise, Lehr, Vizcaino, Politte, German, Rodney, Mantei, Looper, Soriano, Valdez, Riske, Tadano) I'm just trying to come up with names. I'd like to hear some input on what you think these two teams will do, thanks.
Let's be honest with ourselves here. Unless the Reds acquire some pitching, they stand no chance in the division anyways. Having said that, why not give Wagner a chance?
He is the most talented bullpen pitcher they've got, so give him the chance. The worst case scenario would be it would trash his confidence even further and he would never rebound. While that is some risk, it's not enough of a risk to prevent me from trying it. Who knows, he might excel in the role.
The other option would be to acquire one of the guys you mentioned.
I forget where I read this but I read that they are looking for a closer this season outside thier organization. Devine is not ready t close as of yet and Atlanta has some money to spend.
baseballnewb wrote:Reds closer will be Lidge, they'll trade Dunn for him as idiotic as that is.
Idiotic doesn't even begin to describe how bad that move would be. Why would a team that only had 35 save opportunities in '04 worry about their closer situation? Take Dunn out of the equation and we're probably talking about closer to 30 SVO. Why worry about having a top-tier closer for 30 appearances?
Is there anything fluffier than a cloud? If there is, I don't want to know about it.
Schuerholz said in an interview last week that he hoped Devine would one day be the Braves' closer. I agree that he won't get the chance right away next season (they'll probably look elsewhere), but I wouldn't bet against Devine getting it this season late if the closer falters or next season.
I think it's too early and it'll get sorted out in ST. Right now though, I'd see the Reds giving Ryan Wagner another shot. In ATL, I can't see Reitsma with the job back.
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by Havok1517 » Sun Dec 11, 2005 7:52 pm 
