Qualls would fill in just fine as a closer... much like Wheeler did in his short stint when he replaced Lidge. Hell, most releif pitcherswith plus stuff would rack up a pretty good save percentage, if given enough opportunity. Its why every year, there's some "new" closer who puts up gaudy numbers out of nowhere. Most of the time, these guys weren't closing in the minors... its just where they were able to find there way up to the big leagues. Its also why established closers, while valuable and pricey, change teams fairly often... more than the other established starting pitchers and position players.
Even with the short series, it was still nice to get the sweep. Lets keep it going and take care of the Reds
Yea... pick the guys who are likely #1 and #3 (Eckersly #2) in terms of greatest closers since the save statistic was adopted.
Two days ago, you said this: First of all, out of all three of those years.... Valverde was only the full time closer in one of them (last year). Hell, if you use simple numbers as a comparison, Octavio Dotel was just as dominant as anybody in baseball not named Pedro in 2001-02-03 as a pitcher... however, the comparison was their performance, at their peaks, as closers (which we all know is an entirely different ballgame than being the setup man).
Yes... and I stand by that. It is an entirely different dynamic... but it doesn't mean that career 7th or 8th inning guys can't adapt or succeed more than 80 or 90% of the time. And, for a 7th inning guy like Lidge, his numbers went up dramatically once he became a closer. My main point is that while its a different dynamic, it doesn't mean that only a small select number of established closers are cut out for it.
