WHEN THE 'SAVE' STAT DOESN'T VALUE CLOSING OR FINISHING THE GAME--2006 stats

How to eliminate candidates for "Best Closer," eg. 2006 stats (which you'll never hear about on ESPN):

• If the "Closer" in question doesn't "Finish the Game," (GF) obviously someone else has to. The SVO tells you how many times the manager put the guy in the game. The "Closer" should be able to finish the game in substantial numbers. This is one of several stats where you find out more accurately if you have the better closer or just someone who steps in to record a "save" stat and really hasn't "closed the door," where the team needed to call upon an entirely different person to "finish" the game (GF). Here's a list of actual closers' numbers from 2006, ranking how many GF's the pitcher had above his SVO's:

Pitcher Rank # GF's above SVO's ______________________

• 1. 23 more-Nathan

• 2. 22 more-Rivera

• 3. 22 more-Fuentes

• 4. 18 more-Ray

• 5. 15 more-Ryan

• 6. 14 more-Putz

• 7. 14 more-Wagner

• 8. 13 more-Jenks

• 9. 13 more-Jones

• 10. 12 more-Otsuka

• 11. 8 more-Papelbon

• 12. 7 more-K-rod

• 13. 7 more-Street

• 14. 1 less-Hoffman

If you're at the end of this list you may have a "save opportunity" given by a manager, but you haven't earned the "best closer" title by a long shot. This will be ignored by ESPN. Later, I'll address another stat ESPN has worked into the lexicon--the "1-2-3" closer stat, another cosmetic gimmick stat. The cosmetic stats pointedly ignore what people actually in the game realize--there are things like runners on base, multi-inning appearances, late season down the stretch contributions, etc., which are used or ignored by the media depending on whom they want to make disappear.

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