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| Friday, February 16 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Where do closers come from? Special to ESPN.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Having a reliable closer is at the top of every team's agenda. The Kantian ideal of a closer is a big, intimidating fireballer with a steely glare and nerves of titanium. If you actually look at real-life closers, however, you see a large variety of types. There are hard-throwers, sinker/slider guys and junk-tossers.
Where do closers come from? Let's take a look at each pitcher who saved 10 or more games in the major leagues in 2000. We'll list them by most saves, but remember that saves are a funky stat, and don't always correlate well with actual performance. Antonio Alfonseca was the saves leader with 45, but does anyone actually believe he's better than Mariano Rivera? Of course not. Also listed are county of origin and the pitcher's role while in the minor leagues.
North American college: 24 (63 percent) North American high school: 6 (16 percent) Latin America: 6 (16 percent) Asia: 2 (5 percent) Only seven of the 38 pitchers were first-round or supplemental first-round draft choices. And none of the seven pitchers so drafted were used as a closer as an amateur. Also, look at how the 38 pitchers were used in the minor leagues: Starter: 22 (58 percent) Bullpen: 10 (26 percent) Converted in minors: 5 (13 percent) Special case: 1 (3 percent) The majority of current major-league closers were used as starters nearly exclusively in the minors. About one quarter were used in minor-league bullpens; another 13 percent began their minor-league careers as starters but converted to relief at some point, usually in the upper minors. Billy Koch is a special case; he was used as a starter in both college and the minors, but the Blue Jays intended for him to be a relief pitcher all along. What does all of this mean? Mostly, it means that closers come from a variety of origins, although the majority are former starters. Few were hot draft picks; very few were at the top of their game in high school. Keep all this in mind when your favorite team starts praising a Double-A closer as the next bullpen savior, or when clubs start drooling over some hot college closer come draft day. The odds are against such pitchers developing the way the clubs expect. John Sickels is the author of the STATS 2001 Minor League Scouting Notebook.  Send this story to a friend | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||