Crede cuts ties to White Sox, moves to rival

The Chicago Auto Show is taking place downtown this week and heading down for a day has become a minor tradition for my brother-in-law and me. This makes for interesting timing, as we spent part of last year's visit discussing the future of Joe Crede and what the White Sox would do at third base for the 2008 season.

As of this morning, we'll have to think of something else to talk about.

Crede was in the Twin Cities to take his physical and presumably get back on a plane to Fort Myers, where he stands to be the starter at third for the Twins unless he gets hurt again. White Sox fans are more than aware that Crede's back has been a little iffy lately. This could very well be Chicago's version of a Trojan Horse in free agency form.

From the Twins site:

The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting that the deal features a base salary of $2.5 million, with the chance to earn $7 million in appearance bonuses. The bonuses begin once Crede reaches 250 plate appearances and tops out at $7 million following his 525th plate appearance...

The structure of the contract should help protect the Twins if Crede doesn't prove to be healthy. Crede, 30, has been limited to just 144 games the past two seasons due to back injuries. He's undergone two back surgeries over that time span, including one this past fall to remove a nerve impingement. His agent, Scott Boras, has told reporters that Crede is ready to go for Spring Training.

Back in Chicago, the team put a feature up on their site to pump up Fields a bit, drawing odd comparisons between Crede/Fields and Brett Favre/Aaron Rodgers. I know, weird, huh?

More interesting were the Green Bay parallels that ran right down to managing fan expectations of the new guy getting set to take over.

From the White Sox site:

Truth be told, Fields might not wind up quite as spectacular as a healthy Crede was with the glove at the hot corner. He might never win any accolades for his fielding.

Then again, a scant few third basemen match up with Crede when he's on his game. The present concern for Fields is not these personal highlights, as much as simply fitting into the White Sox big picture. To reach this goal, Fields knew his defensive play had to improve from an inconsistent 2008...

In 2007, Fields hit 23 home runs and drove in 67 over 100 games. In 2008, Fields hit .156 without a home run over 14 games. When Crede went down because of his balky back, the White Sox opted to start Juan Uribe at third because of his stronger defense.

(Image from: MLBlogs.com)

There's just no way

One of the big links floating today is the Baseball Prospectus win/loss projections for the year and for those keeping an eye on Chicago, it's feast or famine.

The Cubs are predicted to finish an NL-best 95-67, while the White Sox are being projected to finish last in the AL Central, with a record of 74-88.

No way do the White Sox do that poorly, to finish a (hypothetical) game behind the Royals.

No word on whether or not the Dodgers get a bump if they win back Manny Ramirez's heart.

Cubs no longer "got wood"

Not quite a year after I wrote this, the Kerry Wood era has ended in Chicago. Well, on the North Side, at least. There's no telling what Kenny Williams will do next after trading last year's big signing. (More on that later.)

This morning, the Cubs made a move for Florida's Kevin Gregg for a minor leaguer and parted ways with Wood just after lunchtime. Presumably, this means Carlos Marmol becomes the closer and that Gregg becomes the setup man who can move to a closer role if Marmol stumbles.

All of this means that Wood will be pitching somewhere else next season.

While my man-love of Wood (wait, that sounds bad...) is well-documented here, he leaves on a high note after returning from his endless trip to the DL, an All-Star selection and finishing fourth in saves for National League pitchers last year.

"We’re just in a situation, as Kerry fully understands, that that length of deal, for the kind of salary he’d command right now, is not our first priority. We certainly have to finish our rotation, we have offensive situations to address, and by having the prominence that (Carlos) Marmol now brings to the table, it certainly doesn’t come before the other needs we have. We felt it was time Kerry goes out and does what’s best for him and his family, and gets a huge multi-year deal if possible."

On the South Side, the White Sox traded away Nick Swisher, the switch-hitting fountain of awesome that GM Kenny Williams had to have last year.

Wait, make that - Had. To. Have. (Last year.)

To the point that he pried him from Oakland for the most promising part of the Chicago farm system. Yeah, that guy? He's gone now.

The Yankees swapped Wilson Betemit and minor league pitchers Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez in exchange for Swisher and minor league pitcher Kanekoa Texeira.

(And what's up with another Jhonny in the majors? I thought Peralta was the only one ever. Now we have two in baseball?)

I think that the Swisher experiment - which according to the sidebar on ESPN says that he had the lowest batting average of any player with a qualifying number of at bats (502... uh why is that the number?) - is the equivalent of losing your shirt while flipping a house.

You bought the house because you could, but never really kept it long enough to turn any sort of profit.

Note: While I don't share the sentiment on Wood's long-term prospects as the answer to the closer problem for the Cubs put forth by Steve Rosenbloom, I do share this view:

I’ll miss the guy. I’ll miss his story. I’ll miss the big sound of Wrigley when he entered a game and the bigger one when he ended it.

(Image taken for Siberian Baseball)

Setting the record straight

As sent along by Frank the Tank this morning, watch for the guy in the Blackhawks t-shirt setting the record straight on Chicago's baseball loyalties (though I question that Sox fans had a "great" year). The fun starts at the 0:33 mark.



It's also worth noting that in the first few shots of the president elect, he was catching a ride with the Secret Service while wearing a White Sox cap.

The mayor and the president are both White Sox fans. I suspect that Wrigley Field willbe condemned and knocked down any day now.

Pictures worth 1,000 words

Once again, Palehose 8 has shown us the way.

Sometimes I hate it when he's right.


(Image from: Palehose 8... obviously)

Free baseball!

Well, not free baseball - tickets are going for $200 a pop and climbing as of late this afternoon - but Game 163 is upon us.

John Danks will start for the Sox and Nick Blackburn starts for the Twins. Despite Danks' issues of late - and face it, all of the Sox starters have been shelled in one game or another in September - I'll still take him over Blackburn.

Both have pitched 187 innings this year and have 11 wins. Danks wins pretty much every other category of note, incuding ERA (3.47 to 4.14), earned runs (72 to 86) and K/9 (7.46 to 4.48), just for a random sample.

Also, with the game being held in Chicago and not at the Ball Mall, the Sox have a huge advantage walking into the game.

Twins closer Joe Nathan was on the air with one of the radio shows in Chicago as I ran errands this afternoon and was asked to sum up the season with regard to matching 88 and 74 records leading to the one-game playoff.

Nathan said that in addition to both teams being division rivals and constantly beating on each other for the AL Central title, it seemed fitting to come this far to be tied. He pointed to the teams mirroring each other - when the Twins went on a skid, so did the Sox and when the Sox got on a roll, so did the Twins - all season long.

Regardless, both teams weren't expected to be here at the end of the season. I wasn't the only one to completely write off these two in favor of the Indians and Tigers.

Of course that won't help fans of whichever team loses tonight, but it's something.

Late note: John Kruk got done watching Danks speak to Pedro Gomez and was laughing at Danks' comment that he didn't know where this win ranked for him.

"I can tell him," Kruk said. "It's the best he ever pitched in his life. It's the most important game he's ever pitched in his life and it's the best he's ever pitched because he won the big game for this team."

I need Kruk to help me put events in my life in perspective. What do you think he does in the offseason? I mean other than take naps and make crank calls.

(Image from: Some random blog. I'll assume it's from MLB.com)

We're gonna need you to come in this weekend, hmmmmkay?

The White Sox are being delayed this afternoon because of storms in Chicago, meaning that the makeup game against the Tigers will wait just a little longer to complete.

The basics are that the Sox need two wins in two days to make the playoffs. Currently, they're a half game behind the Twins and one win gives them a tie for the AL Central crown. Beat the Tigers at home today and you get the Twins tomorrow in Chicago.

This earns them the right to play the Rays later in the week.

Needless to say, this is not a good thing for any team heading into the postseason.

Freddy Garcia will face Gavin Floyd whenever the game starts. If I'm on the Tigers, I'm coming out to make someone pay for making me play in the cold rain today when I should be flying home to see my family.

In the NL Central, the Brewers walked away with the Wild Card by virtue of a final game win. CC Sabathia proved that he's worth just as much publicity as Johan Santana as a one-game monster, picking up the win over the Cubs Lite lineup.

The Brewers ticket to October is resulting more from the Mets collapsing than stellar play on their end - the Mets owned their biggest lead of 3.5 games in the NL East as late as Sept. 10 - but they're in without play in games or tiebreakers.

For the record, both teams looked pretty awful at times in September - the Brewers were 10-16 in the past month - but now Milwaukee has to scramble to piece together a rotation on short rest.

Not that anyone north of the border is complaining, though. The Brewers are in with a few days to catch their breath. More than you can say for the two teams left.

(Image from: MLive.com)

Well, this just got interesting

The White Sox game in Minneapolis just ended a few minutes ago in extra innings, with the Twins completing the sweep and giving themselves a slim 1/2 game margin in the AL Central.

For those up to date on their SportsCenter clinching celebrations, the Red Sox have a spot, the Rays have a spot and the Angels clinched in mid-August, leaving Chicago and Minnesota to duke it out for the final playoff spot.

The Twins got the better end of the series.

Now, as Cubs fans quietly whisper about the wisdom of printing World Series tickets by virtue of their best record in the National League, Sox fans anxiously watch the weekend series at the Cell with one eye on the out of town scoreboard.

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but if you could choose three games to determine your fate would it be against the Royals, who never contend but have had a hand in the AL Central two of three years now or the Indians, who were expected to run with the Tigers for the Central crown before the bottom dropped out on both teams?

(Quick time out. Which of those statements would have sounded strangest in early March? Indians and Tigers in the toilet before the All-Star break? White Sox and Twins in the mix with three to play? Cubs with the best record in the NL? The Rays winning the AL East? Seriously, this year is a total funhouse.)

Now, the good news.

Go back two years and the Twins were playing out of their minds down the stretch, winning game after game when - and stop me if you've heard this one - they had no business winning that often.

As Joe Mauer became the first batting champ while playing as an everyday catcher, the Twins trailed the Tigers into the final weekend against the White Sox. Detroit had Kansas City at their own park.

I'll turn it over to me for the breakdown:

Regardless of where you are or how good you think your team will or will not be, strange things can happen at both ends of the season. Just ask the Royals.

With that in mind, we were at the Twins game this afternoon to see a game that on paper in April and May should have been the Twins serving as spoilers to a White Sox title defense run. In practice, it was Kansas City pulling three games from deep in its collective ass to knock the Tigers from the top spot and give the Twins the division title for the fourth time in five years.

So, not only is there historical precedent, but with the teams involved. The Royals have played the frontrunner on the road and swept before.

Is it possible that the Royals are just better at playing the spoiler than other teams? Granted, they get plenty of practice where others teams fold under bad attitudes and crushing expectations, but could they really be the best spoilers in the league?

I'm totally serious about this.

Francisco Liriano starts for the Twins tomorrow, John Danks for the Southsiders. I'd post who they start against, but I'm betting no one else has heard from them unless they have teams in several AL-only keeper leagues.

Oh, and the "Post-Season 2008" tag just got minted for this post. This is the second most exciting thing that's happened today.

Late edit:

The teams that have tickets punched for the postseason are:

NL:
Chicago
Los Angeles

AL:
Tampa Bay
Boston
Los Angeles (by way of Anaheim, etc.)

(Image from: StarTribune.com)

Useful trivia for a change

Nice work, ESPN - you gave us something worthwhile in the long-running Cubs/White Sox rivalry.

ESPN the Magazine compiled a lengthy list of trivia connecting the two teams and covering a lot of ground. Granted, some of the 102 facts that mark the 102 years since both teams were in contention for the postseason come down without much rhyme or reason in the numbering system, but otherwise it's a fun read.

My favorite is the comparison from umpire Bruce Froemming, who chimed in on the difference between being bawled out by Lou Piniella and Ozzie Guillen:

ON LOU: "He's very loud. When he flipped his lid last year, I thought it was premeditated; his team was playing bad, the press was all over him, so he had to do something. But the next time we saw him, he was very humble, apologized and said it wouldn't happen again. He likes umpires."

ON OZZIE: "He yells at the same decibel level as Lou. The difference is, when Ozzie started yelling and talking really fast, I couldn't understand him. He'd go *@&@(!(@ and I'd say, 'Ozzie, slow down.' With him, I don't think anything is premeditated. I'm not sure he remembers the things he did three days ago. Which is good.

In news that should shock no one, Wrigley Field's food is awful and should only be eaten if you've recently come out of a coma and are in need of constant nourishment.

(Image from: CounterfeitChic.com)

White Sox lose heart, soul in one shot

One of the underrated skills that professional athletes need to develop in order to survive in larger markets is the ability to sell bad ideas and bad breaks and to do so with a smile on their face.

For anyone needing an illustration of these skills, refer to the reactions after word got out that White Sox offensive spark plug Carlos Quentin has a broken wrist and will have to undergo surgery.

"He was the heart and soul," Thome said. " ... You're talking about a guy who could be the MVP.

"It's tough, but you got to move on."

Nick Swisher was a bit more optimistic... kinda:

"[How good will team be?]We'll find out tonight. I think it's a huge loss. It's hard to tell. With the power that he's provided, taking that out of the lineup, we have to pull together.

"The timing couldn't be worse. I hope he heals faster than any of us can imagine."

Lest you think that Thome and Swisher are just leaning on a little hyperbole to prop up a teammate who's feeling a little down, here are some of the numbers for one of the most unnoticed stars this season:

Quentin is the team leader in runs (96), home runs (36), RBI (100), OBP (.394) and Slugging (.574).

I was going to list where he ranked second and third with this year's Sox, but it's pretty much every other category. I'll just stop before I drive off the Sox fan base.

(Image from: UmpBump.com)

Secondary highlights

Aside from the Red Sox pasting the White Sox for most of the weekend - 8-0 and 8-2 wins on Friday and Saturday, with a 4-2 loss Sunday - the highlights have to be Ozzie Guillen's comments following the Saturday night game.

After Dustin Pedroia wore out the White Sox pitchers for two days, Guillen was extra quotable after the game.

"I never thought I would walk a jockey," Guillen said. "I must be the worst manager ever in the history of baseball right now, walking a guy that just came from being on the top of Big Brown to beat the White Sox.

"Right now he's on a roll."

Pedroia was 4-for-4 with three runs and a walk on Friday and 4-for-4 with two runs and a walk from the clean up spot on Saturday, prompting Guillen's exceptional comments.

Then again, good ink seems to follow Pedroia lately, including a feature story on him in ESPN the Magazine that focused on his constant jawing at opponents and oddball behavior in the clubhouse.

The title? 170 Pounds of Mouth. You really have to respect a man who Manny Ramirez thinks is crazy. I don't quite know why, but you do.

(Image from: Boston.com)

It's hard to argue with the man on that

Regardless of your political leanings - and if we can't escape stupid political discussions in the realm of baseball, where can we retreat to? - it's hard to argue with Barack Obama when he speaks on the state of Chicago baseball.

From the recent ESPN interview, via the Chicago Tribune:

"I'm not one of these fair weather fans,'' the junior senator from Illinois and presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party explained. "You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there. People aren't watching the game. It's not serious. White Sox, that's baseball. Southside."

It's hard to argue with that assessment (even as a Cubs fan) and it shows that a.) Obama's staff has done a wonderful job of prepping their candidate to have that everyman finish or b.) Obama has been to a game at each park in the past few years and understands what's happening beyond the security detail's perimeter.

(While John McCain has been seen at several Diamondbacks games in his home state, my money says he pores over the box scores every morning trying to find results from the last Cleveland Spiders game.)

Rich Daley must be fuming this morning when he realizes that he's on the cusp of losing his "most powerful White Sox fan" title. I expect Obama's entire motorcade to get the Denver boot on his next trip home.

(Image from: RollingStone.com)

Brains and thoughts

From the always outstanding Palehose 8.

Charlie Hough returns to White Sox

Taking a page from Brett Favre's playbook, knuckleballer Charlie Hough has decided he isn't quite ready for the links yet, announcing his return to the Chicago White Sox.

After pitching his last game in 1994 as a Florida Marlin at age 46, he's announced via his agent that knuckleball pitchers could easily pitch indefinitely, as the pitch requires very little arm strength.

Mark Buehrle was on hand before yesterday's game to welcome the former Sox hurler back to the fold.


(Actually, this is for a show heading to the United Center this week. From the actual caption: White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle hands the ball to "Baby T-Rex," a person in a dinosaur costume promoting "Walking with Dinosaurs," a show coming to the United Center.)

(Image from: Charles Cherney of the Chicago Tribune)

What Hawk Harrelson knows

The Chicago Sun-Times runs a feature called, "This much I know," where they interview people and publish the list of quick hits.

I guess it was morbid curiosity when I clicked the link for Hawk Harrelson and stumbled across pure gold.

For instance, he's an announcer because he sucks at golf. That probably explains why he's such a first cut rate announcer - he'd rather be doing something else, instead.

Also from the goldmine that is Harrelson's mind:

I was the White Sox general manager in 1986. I can tell you being a general manager is the worst job in baseball. No question about it.

It might just be that the Hawk was one of the worst at the job. I have an army of Sox fans who are behind me on this one.

Lou Piniella is one of my dear friends. I just want to kick his ass.

I would love to see the line on a Harrelson/Piniella fight.

Up until '05, I never really realized the difference of winning a World Series to losing a World Series. My wife asked me which was better, '67 or '05. I got to tell you, it's '05. The difference is immense.

I've never even been to a World Series game and I'm pretty sure I grasp that concept.

(Image from: SpudArt.org)

Brian Anderson has a dirty mind

From today's Joke of the Day on the Chicago Tribune site is White Sox outfielder Brian Anderson. Guess it pays to preview these if you're going to use them as a warm up for a daily morning meeting.

I hesitate to even link to it, because the Tribune can't be bothered to allow an embedding code, so they obviously have enough site traffic.

I wouldn't want to tax their servers with the extra attention.

It's not like they're the Steel Curtain

There's an old story about the Pittsburgh Steelers of the 1970s that says in their heyday there were so many players on the defensive team on the Pro Bowl roster that they began calling their own plays on the field and confusing the handful of guys from the other teams.

It was just easier - and probably made for a better story - to call out the plays from the Pittsburgh playbook and let the non-Steelers fend for themselves instead of trying to play off of the same shortened page in the Pro Bowl.

I'm seeing elements of this as the All-Star balloting comes to a close shortly and players from the teams with huge fanbases are in the top three of each position, regardless of ability or this season's performance.

Primarily, I'm looking at the Cubs and how many are primed for a trip to New York. This shouldn't surprise me much anymore, because aside from being shocked that my e-mail client's spam filters let a message through imploring me that, "Kosuke needs your help!" without immediately dumping it to protect me from Japanese pornography, the rest of the experience is a carbon copy of what is becoming a yearly rant.

When the ESPN broadcast ran the graphic with current vote leaders on Sunday night, it was a little disappointing to see the screen awash in Cubbie blue, Red Sox red and the pinstripes of the Yankees.

Not that players who are having great seasons shouldn't be included, but once again, it seems that muscle memory and fan amnesia are helping to steer the ship.

In the National League, the Cubs are churning out votes with three players scheduled to start - Geovany Soto, Alfonso Soriano and Fukudome - if the voting ended today. This is despite Soriano's injuries which have kept him out of the Cubs lineup for long stretches this season.

Mark DeRosa and Aramis Ramirez are second in the voting, despite DeRosa not having a set position on the team, while Derek Lee and Ryan Theriot are in third place in their races.

For those scoring at home, every position has a Cubs player in the top three vote-getters. They're a good team through the first half of the season - last weekend at The Cell not withstanding - but they're not that good.

The American League is even worse. With the exception of Joe Mauer who just overtook Jason Varitek in the race to backstop the AL All-Stars, every leading vote-getter is a member of the Yankees or Red Sox (in most cases the top two are the New York/Boston connection).

Want proof that fans are voting a straight ticket for their team? There's no way that over 600,000 people truly believe Julio Lugo is the best shortstop in the AL.

The biggest oversight to fix is the omission of Carlos Quentin, who isn't among the top 15 in AL outfielders - despite the inclusion of Johnny Damon, Coco Crisp and Bobby Abreu - even though he's been the sparkplug for the White Sox in the first half.

While it's generally accepted that the whole exercise is just a way to make the fans feel involved and is nothing more than a popularity contest, it was nice to see Josh Hamilton make the cut after his hot start. Still, I think MLB could streamline the whole process by assigning votes like the government does in assigning members of the House of Representatives.

Teams with the largest fan bases as determined by merchandise sales and home attendance would receive the most votes for their players, while teams with small pockets of fans would receive the least.

Just think of all the time and energy we'd save not counting votes that would give us identical results.

(Image from: MLB.com)

Sox fans jump ship

A quick link from Daniel Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer who is politely asking to defect from Red Sox Nation, especially in light of the recent championship won by the Celtics.

I feel your pain, Mr. Rubin.

I remember being on the train in 2005 and seeing more Red Sox hats than White Sox hats on the Red line headed to The Cell and wondering if Chicago had that many transplants from Boston or if the natural parallels between the Northsiders and the Red Sox fans was too great of a temptation for those starved for success after nearly 100 years without a championship of their own.

I wonder retroactively if those fans also traded Red for White in their Sox loyalties that fall, especially after Chicago steamrolled the punchless Boston team in the playoffs that year.

Still, even without an increasingly loud and obnoxious fan base, it's difficult to not start pulling for the local team when you're a stranger in town. With two years in Minneapolis and season tickets for the Twins in 2006 and 2007, it was hard to not get wrapped up in the team you see most often, even with a full dance card of rooting interests.

When you're looking to talk baseball with your boss, it's much easier to start following the team that you hear about on the radio, see almost exclusively in the papers and have instant access to on local television. If you're even remotely interested in baseball, it's nice to be able to talk about the ups and downs of the season, even if it's not about your favorite team.

So, I don't blame anyone looking for a new team to call their own, especially when your home ballpark starts shutting you out by way of overpriced seats and sold outs games filled to capacity with fans from out of town who will show up, regardless of how poorly the team is doing - looking at you, Wrigley fans.

And as for Mr. Rubin, enjoy your newfound family in Philly. Try to keep the hooliganism to a minimum.

(Image from: MassholeProShop.com)

Nothing says "childrens' charity" like a liquor store

I was sitting at the kitchen table the other night when the back page of one of the weekly entertainment newspapers caught my eye.

A full page ad blared, "Meet White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen!" Where? At a liquor store.

I don't worry too much about Ozzie, but I can only imagine the circus that is bound to erupt when you combine Chicago fans (from either side of the river), booze and a first-place baseball team.

I've thought about this for a while now and can't decide if the bleacher creatures from Wrigley, jacked up on cheap cases of Old Style or the notoriously rowdy fans at The Cell pose a greater potential for chaos when they are invited to come support their team at a store that exists for the sole reason of selling booze. For kids, though! They're raising money for kids.

No word yet on whether or not Lou Piniella will be entering the world of liquor store promotion / fundraising for children.

Maybe he's waiting for free lighter day at the Shell station instead.

On the plus side, at least the White Sox are pretty consistent with doing things for children - who can forget last year's offer of having kids take the field behind Guillen? I just question how appropriate the location is, given the intended recipients.

(Image from: Binnys.com)

The long awaited closer post is on its way

A few weeks ago when Frank the Tank and I did our subway series, seeing the White Sox and Cubs in the same day, it brought to light many of the differences between the two ballclubs.

Aside from the overplayed and overhyped socio-economic differences, the teams themselves are built for different purposes. The Cubs are built for power and to score runs in quick flurries, while the White Sox are built for speed to play Ozzieball. Sure, the Cubs have speed and the White Sox see power from a few of their sluggers, but if you need a quick reference guide, that summary will do nicely.

What really struck me that day was what happened in the ninth inning. On the South Side, Bobby Jenks came storming in from the outfield as the crowd went nuts. With the Sox up 4-0, the team looked to its closer to come in with two on to put the A's rally down, which he did promptly on a sac fly and a game-ending double play.

A few hours later across town, Kerry Wood entered the game to the tinny strains of Guns n' Roses - while The Cell has a new, top of the line sound system for ramping up the crowd, Wrigley Field's speakers were wired by Civil War veterans as some sort of work program - and a slightly jumpy crowd.

While no one doubts Wood's talent, it's his arm that has the faithful worried. For better or worse, Cubs fans see Wood as he was a decade ago, mowing down 20 Astros en route to a banner memorializing the feat on the top of the grandstands.

While blind faith is a wonderful thing, most fans aren't that dumb, so they also worry as counts are stretched and a converted starter struggles to make the mental changes necessary to try and become an effective closer.

Wood entered after a homer and a walk and sat down the next three batters in order with a flyout, a strikeout and a groundout to end the game.

While the results were the same, Jenks threw two pitches for his three outs, while Wood threw 15 and I think that helps illustrate one difference between starters and closers. While starters can nibble around the strike zone, sometimes being criticized for being too fine, a closer is better served by going straight to the gas and trying to overpower the opposition.

Given the state of modern baseball, your best pitchers are now likely to be your ace and your closer, the way they go about their business couldn't be more different. This isn't a bad thing - while it's tough to get blown out, it's downright demoralizing to blow a game in the ninth when your closer melts down.

Recently, Frank and I started talking about the closer position and agreed to work up our magic lists where if we could design a closer from scratch, what would we be looking to add to the mix?

That post will be up shortly, but it's an interesting question to kick around - So, what are your five must have traits for a closer?

(Image from: Baseball-Almanac.com)