Normally we look at the closers on Thursdays, but this week I am going to do that today to give you two extra days to use any info that may be of use to you.
The big bullpen news this week comes out of
Wilson becomes the best bet for save opps the rest of the way, but in the long term, manager Ron Washington said this week that he felt the team needs a veteran presence at the end of the bullpen, indicating that he’s not confident that some combination of Benoit and/or Wilson is not what he wants to be looking at next summer. That also may be an indication that the club does not believe Akinori Otsuka is a very viable option for next year either. At the very least it means they are not sure whether Otsuka is part of their plans.
Yesterday Wes Littleton (3-2-2, 4.47) collected his second save of the season against the Angels working a perfect 9th in a 8-7 win. This appears to be situational with both Benoit and Wilson having worked 3 of the last 4 days, but it muddies the rest of the week.
The Yankees on the other hand may be looking a potential closing candidate in Joba Chamberlain. With Mo Rivera as yet unsigned beyond this season, it is easy to envision such a scenario. Still, I’m not buying it. The Yankees will throw money at their closing slot, whether that means extending Mo or not. Beyond that, Joba has much more value to the Yankees as a starter going forward and it seems unlikely they would devalue him with a role change. Joe Torre suggested yesterday that this was a possibility although he is the only one in the Yankees brass publicly admitting the possibility is on the radar.
All of that having been said however, it is hard to ignore that we said all of the same things about the Red Sox and Jonathan Papelbon. It needs to be noted however that in each of the last two winters, the Sox spent much of the offseason working on the assumption that they would have a closer that was not Papelbon.
Meanwhile the Yankees have suspended their infamous Joba Rules for the duration, setting up Chamberlain to set up Rivera in the postseason.
The two other bullpens in flux are in
The end results of elbow injuries to both Chris Ray and Danys Baez is that Jamie Walker is the Orioles closer. He is a 50-50 proposition at this point, just 6- for -12 in save opps, but if every save counts for you,
And the Blue Jays’ closer situation has not quite deteriorated into a job share yet, but Casey Janssen was called on for 4 outs yesterday to finish up the Jay’s 4-1 win over the Yankees. He was in control and the Jays let him run with Bombers in the 9th. Jeremy Accardo remains the Jay’s primary closer but Janssen could very well vulture another save opp before the end of the season.
Elsewhere, it is hard to believe the Astros will not shut Brad Lidge down at some point, and soon. He gave up three runs yesterday to blow a save against the Cardinals and take the loss. If you haven’t already taken our advice and landed Chad Qualls before this, now would be a good time to do it.
