Remember Mark Wohlers? Stud with the Braves for a while. ERA over a few prime years for him: 4.50, 4.59, 2.09, 3.03, 3.50. All while K'ing a crazy # of guys and saving games. Including closing out games in the playoffs for a championship team. ERA for relievers can vary year to year. I know people know this, but just trying to provide a real example that helps bring color to that statement.
Yes, Ken Giles makes me nervous. As has been said, every closer on earth not named Eckersley or Rivera or Hoffman (or this year, Jansen/Kimbrel) pretty much makes me nervous. Wagner infuriated me. Lidge was great, when he was great, but even then he had his moments when he couldn't find the zone or would groove something. Such is the nature of the job. Doug Jones in '92? is probably my favorite Stros closer of all time. Just because nobody can explain how he did what he did. same as when he had his run with the Indians. He threw 86-something mph slop, and then followed that with a changeup that nobody could touch. Loved that guy.
CF would have murdered Eckersley for giving up the HR to Gibson. Would have also called for Rivera's head for basically blowing the WS vs Arizona.
MY LORD you are unsufferable....... Mariano Rivera went to 7 WS and won FIVE. No not by himself, but he had a 0.99 ERA and 11 saves. He was nearly unhittable except for the couple of times he wasn't. Look I get you are just defending your husbands stats, but stop with the ridiculous defense of Giles. He's good, most of us like him. We just don't trust him yet so get over it. If Giles finishes his career with the same track record as Rivera and people are still complaining then okay I don't know what to say.
Can't speak on Eckersley, but Rivera is nonsense unless you wanna dismiss his prior successes circa 2001. Nobody's perfect. You build credit and take losses. Key is taking fewer losses.
Lol... sarcasm not your strong suit. But even then, Lidge has almost 2 years of historically great closer numbers... and was left for dead after 2 playoff games.
