Q. ... Well?
A. He would, yes.
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Q. So you're one of those Good Ole Boyz who doesn't like sabr math? Because nobody pays their 2nd-best short man anything like $9M a year. It makes zero sabr sense to pay one short reliever $10M a year and then pay the next one, ALMOST AS GOOD, no more than $3M.
A. Now realize that this is coming from the internet's original scoffer on "Closers."
Back in 1997, when the Mariners were going through their nightly horrors with Ayala, Sanders, Charlton and Co., I was debating everybody in the civilized world as to whether a team needed an anointed "closer."
In '97, we discussed it with Bill James, also. Bill views (or did view) the closer paradigm as a "shibboleth," a mythical belief that will one day dissolve into the mist -- and that one day teams will use their ace reliever in various innings, to put out fires.
