chris ray

[Buttermaker]

when will he be named the orioles closer?? i say mid may or early june...

[OdeToNo1]

that long, eh?

No later than April 20th.

[mcd285]

he is having a good spring. I cant' imagine it will take him long to take over the closer role. Sherril is not doing great and he even told Trembley he wouuld not be disappointed if Ray was handed the job.

Here is the summary from Rotoworld

George Sherrill said Thursday that he would have no problem if manager Dave Trembley decided to start the season with Chris Ray as closer.

"He (Ray) has looked good this spring," Sherrill said. "If that’s something they want to do, that’s fine. All I want to do is win. I don’t care what my title is." Sherrill has allowed 17 base runners in 5 1/3 innings of work and admitted Thursday that his mechanics aren't yet put together. The ball is in Trembley's court now.

[BitterDodgerFan]

we all know ray is better than sherrill but the question is how long will it take for sherrill to pitch his way out of the closer role? month? weeks? half season? who knows?

[TornHammy]

I would speculate sooner rather than later. An important distincition here is that Sherrill doesn't have to pitch his way out of the closer's role, because the O's want Ray closing. If Sherrill is decent (as he was to begin the season last year) he could still lose his job to a healthy Ray. Sherrill is a stopgap and a lefty specialist. Ray is the COTF.

Bottom line, if Ray shows that he is healthy and his velocity and command are comparable to where he was pre-surgery, then he'll be closing within 6 weeks, probably sooner.

[freakshow]

Here're some quotes from last week.

http://masnsports.com/2009/03/the-good-pitching-news.html

I figure he'll be the "official" closer by May.

[JakeTrain72]

I would speculate sooner rather than later. An important distincition here is that Sherrill doesn't have to pitch his way out of the closer's role, because the O's want Ray closing. If Sherrill is decent (as he was to begin the season last year) he could still lose his job to a healthy Ray. Sherrill is a stopgap and a lefty specialist. Ray is the COTF.

Bottom line, if Ray shows that he is healthy and his velocity and command are comparable to where he was pre-surgery, then he'll be closing within 6 weeks, probably sooner.

I concur. This is Ray's job and everyone involved knows it. He just has to show he's healthy and capable of closing. Based on his spring, he's about three nice outings away at this point (this is only my opinion, no source to back it up).

[BitterDodgerFan]

hopefully having ray around lights the fire under for sherrill... although he basically conceded the role away.

[Carnac]

He is a FA in one of my leagues. Waiting to put Smoltz and Escobar on DL. Hoping he hangs around long enough.

[rotoquest]

I like Ray for the closer job as much as anyone else, but look who he is closing for. Everyone of them is probably a FA in everyone's league except maybe Guthrie. Save chances = ?

Jeremy Guthrie
* Koji Uehara
* Mark Hendrickson
* Alfredo Simon
* Adam Eaton