I see Dempster doing well and keeping the job. That team was a frickin wreck 2nd half last year (Dusty, clubhouse giveup attitude, whatever you wanna blame it on), and I have a hard time thinking anyones #'s 2nd half last year, good or bad, are reliable.
When the closer sees his starting staff of Zam and 4 Minor leaguers and guys like Novoa and Weurtz getting shelled daily, let alone pitching at all, it's gotta get to him.
And I know their D isn't great this year, but there was none, I mean none behind him last year.
To the OP, Wood will never be the closer on this team. You cannot put someone in that role who is prone to breaking down everytime he pitches. There is 0, ZERO, confidence here in Chi in having any kind of production from him ever again. And Lou is not coddling him and Prior. The day this spring he made Wodd throw B2B days, he complained about it ("why me, no one else had to?" he said. At the most, he only be the RHP compliment to Eyre for the 2 week stretches he is healthy.
Howry is the only other choice (besides Rocky Cherry Road or whoever), but I believe it will take more than a couple blown saves to get him in there.
Howry is a much better pitcher against left handed batters. He's 3.71 against righties 1.91 era against lefties. I don't think that adds up to a great closer. As a closer he'll have to face righties a lot more than he would as a setup man.
jfg wrote:Howry is a much better pitcher against left handed batters. He's 3.71 against righties 1.91 era against lefties. I don't think that adds up to a great closer. As a closer he'll have to face righties a lot more than he would as a setup man.
How do you get ERA numbers split between LH batters and RH batters? With it always switching per batter, it seems like this isn't the best statistic.
Last year, LH batters hit .244 and RH batters hit .247. Over his career, he's actually slightly better against RH batters. He's 6'5" and can pinpoint an upper 90s fastball, meaning he'll run it in hard on RH batters.
With Lou at the helm, Howry is a shrewd fantasy pick this year for saves. Dempster is bound to implode, and Wood, well, this is a role I could see Wood succeeding in, but there are too many question marks involving his health.
If Howry was the only lefty in the pen, I could understand Dempster getting a long leash. Cotts and Eyre are shaky, at best, but they should be fine lefty specialists.
Basically, I'm with the rest on this. If Dempster struggles, Howry should get the job pretty quickly.
CPHFighter1 wrote: How do you get ERA numbers split between LH batters and RH batters? With it always switching per batter, it seems like this isn't the best statistic.
you can get them readily at any major site. its an official statistic of major league baseball.
dooz wrote:If Howry was the only lefty in the pen, I could understand Dempster getting a long leash. Cotts and Eyre are shaky, at best, but they should be fine lefty specialists.
Basically, I'm with the rest on this. If Dempster struggles, Howry should get the job pretty quickly.
tgalv wrote:i love how everyone runs to defend bobby howry. ok make him the closer. see what happens.
I love how you claim he isn't good without backing up your claim, because as the numbers show you are wrong. Do you have a reason to support your claim? Let me guess, because he didn't go good when he came to Boston 4 years ago. Good reason. Those few months definitely outweigh how good he's done in the 3 years since then.
Cafe Home
Fantasy Football
Fantasy Basketball
Fantasy Hockey
by Dmville » Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:58 pm 
you can get them readily at any major site. its an official statistic of major league baseball.
