Quote:
Originally Posted by packs
Just off the top of my head over the last decade the ones that stand out to me are:
Jack Morris
Lee Smith
Harold Baines
Trevor Hoffman
Bobby Cox
Whitey Herzog
I don't believe any of these inductees were HOFers. Hoffman's WAR is half of Rivera's, which goes to show how much less the closer he was. Smith is even lower than him. Never understood the criteria for managers. Cox and Herzog won exactly one world series. So have a lot of people.
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I was talking players...managers, owners, GM’s, and umpires...your guess is as good as mine!
The “modern closer” is such a new thing that we’re still figuring it out. Eck has a high WAR due to time as a starter. Wilhelm was unique in his era. Gossage, Fingers, and Sutter were an earlier era than the modern closer era. Rivera is clearly the gold standard of this era, but who else from the modern era belongs? Probably not a lot of guys, but probably not zero.
Hoffman and Smith both got in on raw save total numbers...which we know isn’t the best approach. I think Nathan and Wagner are best candidates, but could see it being hard to reach consensus.