Comments on: The Closer

By: joser

joser — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 06:35:19 +0000

Aarsdma. Seriously!!! Let the guy do what he was meant to do.

Walk a bunch of guys?

By: slescotts

slescotts — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:14:12 +0000

Aarsdma. Seriously!!! Let the guy do what he was meant to do. So far, he’s bounced around because these Org’s see his arm strength and think, “what if he could do that as a..’starter’…hmm, Ok, but what if, you know, as a ‘reliever’…!?!”. Major league folks apparently don’t value the position of ‘closer’ enough to allocate young talent to the position. Boston saw Papelbon (as did Papelbon) closing as a waste of his ability and worked towards getting him starting or reliving for quite awhile…UNTIL both parties got a clue and saw what he was a great fit as a closer. Aardsma is a similar case: great potential starting, relieving…’if only…’ Screw it, let the guy throw his best 15-20 pitches–he’ll dominate.

By: Nate

Nate — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:09:22 +0000

um, did this triumvirate of potential closers just give up 10 earned runs in a combined 2.2 innings to Team Australia?
hmmm, I hope they were all: “It’s early spring, I’m just trying to get it over the plate at this point”

By: thr33niL

thr33niL — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 19:32:44 +0000

Aardsma looked REAL good last night. Its also a good endorsement that Clement was very impressed on how hard he was throwing.

By: torx

torx — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 18:20:53 +0000

This article has been quoted by Yahoo. The quote is in the bottom third of the article. I can hear The Jeffersons theme song now.

By: jjracoon

jjracoon — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:48:45 +0000

slescotts, your man made you look good as he was awesome against the Aussies while the rest of the candidates stunk. Maybe he IS back in the pool of closer candidates!!!!!

By: slescotts

slescotts — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:51:09 +0000

I say Aardsma. I’ve seem him hit the mid-upper 90’s and he was quite good at the position in college. Who knows, might be worth a shot to get him used to throwing 15-16 perfect pitches, build up his confidence and let him go. Few hitters at the end of a long game can hit mid/upper 90’s with movement. He has three really good pitches and with his height and velocity he could be the kind of ‘lights out, go eff yourself’ kind of pitcher Papelbon is. I’ve seen him pitch quite a bit and think he could work out quite well for us.

By: Ralph_Malph

Ralph_Malph — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:22:04 +0000

It’s ridiculous to think Fields could step in right away — this year even. He hasn’t pitched in a year, and before that he’d pitched 75 innings in 2 years. I don’t care how good his arm is, there are a few things he will have to learn about getting major league hitters out.

Is there any precedent for a guy with that little experience progressing that quickly?

And before anybody says Lincecum, he was a college starter (made 51 starts throwing over 300 innings in 3 college seasons), didn’t sit out a year after being drafted, and he made 13 minor league starts over 2 seasons before being called up in 2007.

By: bakomariner

bakomariner — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:37:25 +0000

Fields might be the closer someday, but I think that the point is to discuss who the closer will be out of spring training…

Z has stated that Fields will start in the minors…

My vote is for Lowe…

By: itjustcontinues

itjustcontinues — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:41:39 +0000

Josh Fields vs. LH/RH splits (Georgia 2008):

vs. LHB … 40 AB 6 H 6 BB 1 HB 13 K
.150 BA / .277 OBP / .275 SLG / .552 OPS

vs. RHB … 48 AB 5 H 9 BB 2 HB 29 K
.104 BA / .267 OBP / .250 SLG / .517 OPS