The Reds spent a lot of money to bring Francisco Cordero to Cincinnati, from Milwaukee. The Cubs moved three-year closer Ryan Dempster from the bullpen to the rotation. These two seemingly have completely different career paths, as Cordero has never been moved to the rotation, let alone started in the MLB, and Dempster does not have the number of saves to build a resume like a career-reliever such as Cordero.
So, who would you rather have closing in 2008?
Dempster: 203 G, 6 GS, 233.7 IP, 211 K/115 BB, 85/100 leads converted, 22/6 IR/IS
85% leads converted
27% IR/IS
8.13 K/9 IP
4.43 BB/9 IP
Cordero: 212 G, 207.3 IP, 249 K/80 BB, 119/145 leads converted, 77/26 IR/IS
82% leads converted
34% IR/IS
10.81 K/9 IP
3.47 BB/9 IP
I think every baseball fan would pick Cordero if asked who they wanted to close their 2008 baseball team. My question is, why? Is it the workload that he can handle? The strike outs? The relatively low number of walks in the past three seasons?
Despite the fact that he takes a large workload, Cordero is not the most reliable of closers; even including some of his best career work in Milwaukee, Cordero's 2005-2007 managed only an 82% leads converted percentage, and he allowed 34% of inherited runners to score.
The point might not be that fans should like Dempster better than Cordero; rather, that with a manageable workload, any pitcher can be a closer -- even one that doesn't strike out a ton of batters and walks a considerable number.