In five years, baseball writers will have the opportunity to consider Billy Wagner's Hall of Fame credentials. My guess is they will find him wanting, particularly having tossed just 900 innings in his 15-year career.
Take a look, though, at his swan song. Has anyone ever exited the game on such an upswing?
In 69 innings, Billy Wagner allowed just 38 hits while fanning 104. That's domination. His K-rate was second in the NL. His 104/22 strikeout-walk ratio was second in the league. His 7-2, 1.43 with 37 saves was nothing to sneeze at either. He was worth 27 runs -- in just 69 innings! -- to the Braves.
Wagner called it a career at 38. The only practitioner of the twirling arts whom I can remember posting such an incredible valedictory season is Sandy Koufax (27-9, 1.73; 317 K in 323 innings, worth about 100 runs), but his departure, at 30, was transparently premature.
The closer is an over-rated position, but relief masters like Wagner can tilt the contest their team's way. The Braves made a lot of good moves in the off-season, but losing Wagner will be a blow.
b
No comments:
Post a Comment