What is a closer?

So the Todd Jones as Tigers’ closer era may be coming to an end. This got me thinking about what excactly makes a good closer.

I looked back at the World Series of the past 20 years at what the winners’ closer stats looked like compared to his. For Jones’ career, he has posted an ERA of 3.97 and a WHIP of 1.41. His 867 strikeouts in 1070 innings pitched means he’s striking out just 0.81 batters per inning.

The closers of the past 20 World Series champions (with the exception of the 2001 D’Backs who never needed a closer and 1994 no Series) were 7-2 with 34 saves and an ERA of 2.23 and a WHIP of 1.09. Their 74 strikeouts in 72.2 innings pitched means they’ve struck out 1.02 batters per inning.

I know Jones was effective, but the key word in that phrase is was. In his last 11 outings, Jones’ ERA is 8.80 and his WHIP is 1.96. He’s converted four saves and blown three.

I’m not sold on Fernando Rodney (he got three free-swingers to whiff on ball four Sunday), but at this point he’s the best of limited options. Bottom line, Jones wasn’t getting the job done and a change needed to be made.

I’m still not in favor of acquiring new parts at this week’s deadline because of the deficiencies on the pitching staff (especially the back end of the bullpen) and the inconsistent offense. Selling off commodities to try and scrape together a run this year could well send this organization into the slide of the mid-1990s in a couple of seasons.