He's definately safe as the closer to start 2007. He was dominate in 2006 and, besides, who else are they gonna use?
Whether he can maintain his dominance in 2007 is another story. I'm usually leery of guys who post drastically improved numbers. Remember Turnbow's miraculous 2005 followed by disasterous 2006?
My best estimate is that Putz falls off a bit but is good enough to hold the closer's job for the season. So if you don't mind a guy named "putz" on your team and can draft him at a discount to his 2006 numbers, then I say fire away.
I am the Master. Don't question the Master. Just do what he says and be proud.
Havok1517 wrote:I personally think Putz will be the biggets closer bust of 2007 as of right now.
May I ask why? He's got great stuff and good control. It's not like all of the sudden guys are going to start catching up to the 99 MPH fastball... Not to mention he's got a pretty good curve as well, so it's not like he's a one-pitch pitcher...
I just think the league will catch up to him next year. I think he had career year in 2006 and I predict a regression to a lossof the closers job sometime in 2007. Just a hunch.
I think that with Putz is more of a case of him getting better than of him having a career year only to have the league catch up to him in 07. Putz has been on the league for 4 years now, unlike a guy such as Takatsu who came over and did very well for a year then blew up the following year. Well, Takatsu might not be the best guy we can use as a comparison cuz they are pretty different pitchers, but it's tough to predict a huge drop off for a guy who has been relatively successful for 2 full MLB seasons and then puts up 104Ks and only 13BBs for the entire year. That tells me he had great command and unless he completely loses it, he will keep striking guys out. Combined with the fact that he doesn't give up many home runs, you got a pretty good closer.
I did not see this coming, but I think Putz was impressive enough this year to have his job secure for 07. Soriano was pretty good too and we know he also has great stuff. If anything happens to Putz, Soriano will probably do a pretty good job as the closer. I'd look for Putz to keep up the good numbers next year.
You'd never expect a guy like Lidge to blow up either. All of a sudden he's tipping pitches, can't throw a slider, his velocity dropped quite a bit. You never know when it's going to happen. Actually, there's really only a few guys who have been able to remain dominant year in and year out.
Closers are, for the most part, a volatile breed. They can come out and set the world afire and then crash and burn just as fast. I'm beginning to formulate a theory that I would like to see a pitcher close for 100 innings before he's a safe bet. That is to say.. 100 IP as a team's closer. That's about the point where we saw Turnbow and Dempster fail. Closers not yet there include Putz and Otsuka. Not to say I wouldnt draft guys like that, but I would drop them down my list a bit.
That being said, the position is volatile even if the pitcher is not wholly bad. He could have a bad month or even a bad couple weeks and be replaced, never to get his job back. F Cordero is one who comes to mind, and he only resurrected himself via trade.
Putz is a guy I would put in the 10-15 rank of closers, which means in a redraft I probably would not be picking him.
Are you saying he's going to break down next year?
My apologies. I have a nephew named Anfernee, and I know how mad he gets when I call him Anthony. Almost as mad as I get when I think about the fact that my sister named him Anfernee.
Cafe Home
Fantasy Football
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by Old_Style » Sun Oct 22, 2006 7:01 am 
