Per Rosenthal: Balfour (FINALLY) to Orioles...

[weams]

500K is significantly lower then 10 million.

I see no reason to add a "proven closer". Teams do it every year and likely as not it blows up in their faces.

(Phillies are trying to trade Paps for instance)

Red Sox had four and Cardinals 3 last season.

[Can_of_corn]

Maybe I misunderstood your previous point. Who is your $500k closer?

Right now I want to give the job to Wright.

Maybe someone else.

Maybe Hunter or O'Day with one of the 500K arms filling in the back end of the bullpen.

[sportsfan8703]

So it's your opinion that there are no more CL out there to be had for much less than 10M? Think DD misjudged the market should have held on to JJ?

I don't think he misjudged it I think they he just gambling big time. Even going back to when he said there are more closers then closer jobs. Mujica signing so fast to be a set up guy may have surprised him. I think he was banking on saving a few mill and hoping these guys put a big emphasis on being a closer and not a set up guy. But Benoit and Balfour don't look like they're going to take less money to close.

[Can_of_corn]

Red Sox had four and Cardinals 3 last season.

Weams joined my camp last October.

Every offseason I will beat the drum.

[Can_of_corn]

I don't think he misjudged it I think they he just gambling big time. Even going back to when he said there are more closers then closer jobs. Mujica signing so fast to be a set up guy may have surprised him. I think he was banking on saving a few mill and hoping these guys put a big emphasis on being a closer and not a set up guy. But Benoit and Balfour don't look like they're going to take less money to close.

Isn't the Benoit deal with SD a fait accompli?

[isestrex]

Weams joined my camp last October.

Every offseason I will beat the drum.

There's a difference between the popular "closer by committee" strategy which uses multiple relievers in specific situations (i.e. best pitchers in high leverage situations regardless of inning), and what the Red Sox and Cardinals did. Those two teams tried and failed with multiple closers and (unlike the Orioles) were not shy about simply removing a pitcher from the closer's role when he struggled. Koji and Rosenthal finished the season simply because they were the last guinea pig thrown at the solution in the hopes that they would stick... and they did.

Just what "drum" are you beating?

[weams]

There's a difference between the popular "closer by committee" strategy which uses multiple relievers in specific situations (i.e. best pitchers in high leverage situations regardless of inning), and what the Red Sox and Cardinals did. Those two teams tried and failed with multiple closers and (unlike the Orioles) were not shy about simply removing a pitcher from the closer's role when he struggled. Koji and Rosenthal finished the season simply because they were the last guinea pig thrown at the solution in the hopes that they would stick... and they did.

Just what "drum" are you beating?

No closer paid enough that he can not be removed camp.

[Can_of_corn]

There's a difference between the popular "closer by committee" strategy which uses multiple relievers in specific situations (i.e. best pitchers in high leverage situations regardless of inning), and what the Red Sox and Cardinals did. Those two teams tried and failed with multiple closers and (unlike the Orioles) were not shy about simply removing a pitcher from the closer's role when he struggled. Koji and Rosenthal finished the season simply because they were the last guinea pig thrown at the solution in the hopes that they would stick... and they did.

Just what "drum" are you beating?

I got a whole kit.

There is the No defined roles drum.

The Don't sign non-scrap heap free agent relief pitcher drum.

The Don't pay relief pitchers more then a couple million drum.

The flip em when they get expensive drum.

and the Use the middle rounds to draft bullpen prospects cymbal.

[isestrex]

I got a whole kit.

There is the No defined roles drum.

The Don't sign non-scrap heap free agent relief pitcher drum.

The Don't pay relief pitchers more then a couple million drum.

The flip em when they get expensive drum.

and the Use the middle rounds to draft bullpen prospects cymbal.

Other than the first drum, Buck and DD have been playing that same kit so far (though the Balfour signing would change a few things).

[Can_of_corn]

Other than the first drum, Buck and DD have been playing that same kit so far (though the Balfour signing would change a few things).

6.5 million is beyond my limit.

They also lack my cymbal, the cymbal brings the whole kit together. You need to be able to produce bullpen arms for it to work.

[isestrex]

6.5 million is beyond my limit.

They also lack my cymbal, the cymbal brings the whole kit together. You need to be able to produce bullpen arms for it to work.

True but they haven't had a whole lot of time to pull that off. It's possible that could be the norm in 5 years.

[Guest]

76 pages baby. Let's go 100.

[Il BuonO]

76 pages baby. Let's go 100.

Yep, and it could have all been solved with this.

I got a whole kit.

There is the No defined roles drum.

The Don't sign non-scrap heap free agent relief pitcher drum.

The Don't pay relief pitchers more then a couple million drum.

The flip em when they get expensive drum.

and the Use the middle rounds to draft bullpen prospects cymbal.

Balfour is too expensive. Especially after we just said Johnson was too expensive. And I would like them to spend more, just not on the BP.

[Aristotelian]

Balfour is too expensive. Especially after we just said Johnson was too expensive. And I would like them to spend more, just not on the BP.

This exactly. Plus the fact that Balfour wants to go 3 years. I am fine with moving on from Balfour. Trading JJ should allow us to improve somewhere else, but signing Balfour defeats the purpose and gives us an expensive closer for two more years.

[Three Run Homer]

6.5 million is beyond my limit.

They also lack my cymbal, the cymbal brings the whole kit together. You need to be able to produce bullpen arms for it to work.

See, that's the problem. Yes, it would be nice to not have to pay a closer 7-10 M per season. Good organizations produce enough pitching prospects that they are able to develop late relievers from within. The O's were able to develop JJ from within. Maybe there's someone in the O's organization now who will eventually make a good closer, but there certainly isn't an obvious candidate right now, and the O's need a closer they can count on in 2014 if they actually want to contend.

In hindsight, maybe paying JJ $10M for one year wouldn't have been such a bad idea--they could have used the year to see if someone like Steve Johnson or Zach Britton's stuff could play up enough out of the bullpen that they could be viable closer candidates down the road.