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If we go for internal options, I like O'Day for closer


Frobby

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I like the idea as long as his splits normalize, which I think they will. I feel like Hunter and Rodney are the two worst possible choices. One has no control (bad in the ninth) and one has trouble giving up the long ball (devastating in the ninth).

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Though the option with Crain would be less money, do you believe the bullpen would actually be better (taking the injury risk of Crain into consideration)? And let's say we do use the extra 3 million on an inexpensive SP (Johan Santana?). Is a team with Rodney closing games with a solid set-up guy like O'Day better than a team with O'Day closing and Crain setting-up while using the extra few million meeting another need?

I'm more concerned about the starting pitching and the lineup being better than I am about the bullpen being better. If skimping on a closer means signing a #3 pitcher instead of a #5, I'm all for it.

The bullpen is always a crap shoot unless you have someone like Rivera or a few other guys. Rodney is not in that league, and neither is Johnson. From what we have in house, we can find someone to do an adequate job closing.

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Nope. I think he likes defined roles. I also think that relief pitchers like defined roles as well.

Agreed. Doesn't seem like his style. Matusz vs lefties and Hunter vs righties as our setups is a team strength. While you could use a committee to try and create a "virtual" closer based on splits and match ups, you'd be using more men for the one job and weakening a strength. And our bullpen was already overworked last year.

By the way, a few weeks ago when the JJ trade happened, there were all kinds of ideas being thrown around, one being Norris for closer. Someone who has better info than me suggested that pitching aside, he didn't have the mental makeup for closer. I seriously doubt that would be considered anyhow because there are better options like O'Day by the numbers, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

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Do you think Buck is likely to start the season with "closer by committee" if Matusz returns to the pen?

It's never been a better opportunity for him to do so, but Buck is old school and old habits die hard. We'll have a closer at some point instead of all the guys in the BP matching up even if we inadvertently start that way.

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I'm more concerned about the starting pitching and the lineup being better than I am about the bullpen being better. If skimping on a closer means signing a #3 pitcher instead of a #5, I'm all for it.

The bullpen is always a crap shoot unless you have someone like Rivera or a few other guys. Rodney is not in that league, and neither is Johnson. From what we have in house, we can find someone to do an adequate job closing.

Though obviously starting pitching is more important than the bullpen, and we definitely need at least some more SP depth, if not another quality ML starter...I'm pretty nervous regarding our bullpen situation. Our SP was good enough last year for us to go back to the playoffs. I believe that if our bullpen was even middle of the pack good last year that we would have been playing in October. I think that steps toward having a better bullpen is more essential for this team moving forward than having another #3 starter vs. a #5. We saw too many leads lost in the last couple innings last year and I don't think we've remedied that situation yet. Not that throwing money to the Bullpen = better bullpen, but I do not think it will be significantly better than last year currently constructed. And it will once again be our achilles' heel, regardless of how well our SP performs.

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I am worried about whatever malady plagued O'Day toward the end of the year. I believe it was an elbow/forearm issue...which is common and not good for sidearmers.

One thing our closer needs to be is durable, because if we know anything from Buck it's that he'd trot the corpse of Jim Johnson out there if it were a save situation the past few years. The closer has to be able to pitch three straight games with a full-inning appearance. I don't think O'Day, or even Hunter for that matter, are capable of doing that.

Otherwise I agree, I think O'Day is our best reliever and most suited to the closer role. However, I worry that he may be used in lower leverage situations than he normally would be as the closer, since he's normally Buck's go-to fireman and the closer ends up with a fair amount of 3-run lead saves.

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Though obviously starting pitching is more important than the bullpen, and we definitely need at least some more SP depth, if not another quality ML starter...I'm pretty nervous regarding our bullpen situation. Our SP was good enough last year for us to go back to the playoffs. I believe that if our bullpen was even middle of the pack good last year that we would have been playing in October. I think that steps toward having a better bullpen is more essential for this team moving forward than having another #3 starter vs. a #5. We saw too many leads lost in the last couple innings last year and I don't think we've remedied that situation yet. Not that throwing money to the Bullpen = better bullpen, but I do not think it will be significantly better than last year currently constructed. And it will once again be our achilles' heel, regardless of how well our SP performs.

The bullpen was exactly middle of the pack last year, and that was with the same pitchers who made it exceptional the year before. Which was their true form? What guarantee do you have that spending money on a closer is going to make the bullpen better? If Hunter, O'Day, Matusz, and Patton perform close to the way they did two years ago, the bullpen will be fine regardless of the closer. If they perform as they did last year, it also won't matter who the closer is because we won't stand a chance. We've added a couple of bullpen arms that might help this season, including Webb and Brach. A healthy Steve Johnson would be a big help.

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I said the norm.

I was also speaking from the generic proven closer mindset that pervades baseball not my personal beliefs.

I know all this...see the smiley face at the end of my sentence?

It is kind of silly that your "closer" needs to be a flame-thrower. Strikeouts are nice, but the guys I listed and *cough* Jim Johnson *cough* are good examples of guys that don't necessarily need them to succeed.

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If we go in-house we are just raising the white flag. No good in-house candidates other than Gausman and we all know he belongs in AAA working on developing another pitch.

But we all know this.....just get the job down Orioles. Surprise us and try to be competent for once.

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