**OFFICIAL 2007 Cleveland Indians Thread**

[FlyWf]

The most frustrating thing about this season is that "Doing something about our terrible closer" has never even entered the mindshare of the Cleveland media. From 1997-2003 or so Karsay or whoever(someone without magic closer pixie dust) would go 20 for 25 in save ops with a 3.5 ERA all the media could talk about is "Whatever will the Indians do about the bullpen!!!!!!" Now we've got one of the worst closers in baseball and it's not even on their radar. Wedge, I swear to god, you [censored] this up and use him instead of Betancourt in a crucial situation and I will burn you down.

[kyleb]

OH GOOD I WAS AT THIS GAME FUCKIGNSDKLJNSDJLKBDBGS BOROWSKI GSDKHSDNHIJSDHI(JSDNHOSDNH

[Kos13]

[ QUOTE ]
The most frustrating thing about this season is that "Doing something about our terrible closer" has never even entered the mindshare of the Cleveland media. From 1997-2003 or so Karsay or whoever(someone without magic closer pixie dust) would go 20 for 25 in save ops with a 3.5 ERA all the media could talk about is "Whatever will the Indians do about the bullpen!!!!!!" Now we've got one of the worst closers in baseball and it's not even on their radar. Wedge, I swear to god, you [censored] this up and use him instead of Betancourt in a crucial situation and I will burn you down.

[/ QUOTE ]

Um, you might want to get ready for it because I don't think he's going to lose his job with like 4 games left.

FWIW, I agree that he shouldn't be closing, but as a big believer in the "relief ace" philosophy, I'm happy that Betancourt isn't closing. Assuming Byrd is the third starter, I'd let Jake be the closer in the ALDS. Fo realz.

[kyleb]

Why isn't Perez or Lewis closing? Both throw hard and are fastball/slider pitchers.

[ADLinden]

[ QUOTE ]
I theoretically have 100-level tickets to the game tonight

[/ QUOTE ]

Ditto [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[FlyWf]

Oh, yeah, I lurve the Betancourt/Perez tandem as relief aces. It's been an unheralded but big reason for our success this year that we've gotten like 135 high leverage IP of 1.50 ERA out of those two guys. Neither have them have The Joba Rules or anything so they don't get mentioned on Baseball Tonight but Betancourt has a better Cy Young case than Wang ever did.

But there's a tendency by a lot of managers to start using their closers as relief aces in the playoffs as most teams shrink to a 3 or 4 man bullpen. If that's the direction Wedge takes Borowski, I will burn him. And Wedge has shown in the past that he is serious about shrinking his bullpen, one reason that we faltered down the stretch in 2005 is that Wedge started using that 4 man bullpen idea at the beginning of September.

[Kos13]

[ QUOTE ]
Why isn't Perez or Lewis closing? Both throw hard and are fastball/slider pitchers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wedge isn't smart/new-school enough to stick a kid in there. If anything, he'd just let Betancourt close and use Perez/Lewis/JoeBo in the 7th and 8th.

I still think Jake is the best option for the playoff closer's role. He has experience as a reliever, and I would assume that his sinker would work well in a "short" role.

[kyleb]

We have three high-leverage, really good relievers in Perez/Lewis/Betancourt, and yet Borowski is still featured in some sort of high-leverage role. It is really unacceptable.

[KJS]

[ QUOTE ]
We have three high-leverage, really good relievers in Perez/Lewis/Betancourt, and yet Borowski is still featured in some sort of high-leverage role. It is really unacceptable.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wedge's post-game quotes already say Blowrowki will be back in there tomorrow. Jesus Christ.

KJS

[kyleb]

Like I told you at the game, it's not a lot we can get worked up about, because every manager in the game would leave Borowski as the closer. It's a sad fact of reality I unfortunately have to accept.