Song Remains the Same

By Shari Forst
Posted Saturday, February 24, 2007

Wagner Adds New Pitch

In an article on nymets.com by Marty Noble it was said that closer Billy Wagner has added a new pitch to his arsenal - a split-finger fastball, in an effort to enhance his endurance.

Endurance? To pitch one inning? Try getting a 1-2-3 inning for a change of pace and you won’t need all of that endurance you're worried about.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I know I am in the minority when I say I don’t think Wagner was all that good. I wasn’t happy with his acquisition last season. I felt he was older and had injury problems. I would have preferred the Mets went after BJ Ryan.

Last season doesn’t look like a disappointing one for Wagner, but I thought it was, and by his own admission. so did he. In this world of pitching specialists in 2007, I am very old school and long for the days where a pitcher went the distance unless it was clear he didn’t have his best stuff that day or he was physically unable. When Wagner came in to pitch I put my hands over my eyes the same way I did with John Franco and Armando Benitez. I had absolutely no faith.

How hard is it to get a 1-2-3 inning more often than not? They pay these guys millions to pitch one inning and close out a game they should win and in the end you worry about this “specialist” blowing a game that the team fought for 8 innings to win.

I feel that the save stat is the most misunderstood one of baseball, if they had a stat for starting the ninth inning and making a complete mess out of the game I would be more interested in it, because it would be more accurate. Win and Loss records of closers are deceiving as well. If a closer has a lot of wins it simply means he blew the save and his team mates scored the next inning and got him off the hook.

In the aforementioned nymets.com article here is what Wagner had to say about his spring training performances: "Other camps I've been in have had guys lighting it up," (referring to Burgos), "I never throw great in the spring."

Really? I don’t think he throws great under pressure in September either.