Jonathan Broxton, Los Angeles Dodgers (Image: Zuma Press)

1) Jonathan Broxton, Los Angeles Dodgers
Some Dodgers fans thought the closer spot in the bullpen could be shaky in 2009. Guess again. Broxton has eight saves, an era of 0.56, a WHIP of 0.38 and 27 strikeouts in 16 innings.

2) Frank Francisco, Texas Rangers
The Rangers gave Francisco the closers job. So far, so great. He hasn’t given up a run yet and has nine saves and a win.

3) Heath Bell, San Diego Padres
Another closer who has yet to give up a run, Heath Bell has been a huge hit for the Padres and big reason why they are doing better than most experts predicted.

4) Francisco Rodriguez, New York Mets
The Mets went into the offseason trying to strengthen their bullpen. To do that, they signed Rodriguez away from the Angels. His nine saves and 1.08 ERA point to a very good signing.

5) Ryan Franklin, St. Louis Cardinals
Franklin is doing a fine work as the Cardinals closer. He has nine saves, an ERA of 1.23 and a WHIP of 0.68.

Post from: Knuckle Curve

It’s time to decouple the save from the person who finishes the game, and start awarding it to the reliever who does the most to increase the chance of his team winning. This should encourage managers to use their best pitchers in game situations, and still allow these pitchers to gather saves to use to negotiate contracts.

Of course, he’s right. The contract negotiation issue is an important point. Saves are viewed by many as the definitive stat for relievers, which means that closers typically are more expensive than their seventh- and eighth-inning brethren. (This, incidentally, can be exploited by small-market teams that choose to spread wealth across several middle relievers rather than dump all their money into the ninth-inning basket, but I digress.)

Pinto offers a set of rules that seem fairly straightforward to folks who are accustomed to analyzing such things. Sure, other people may be confused by a save rule that follows Pinto’s model, but is the goal of a statistic to be easily understood or to measure something meaningful?

As with everything else in baseball, if change does occur, it will do so at its own pace. In other words, you are advised to keep breathing…

Post from: Knuckle Curve