Wednesday 26 December 2012

Janssen VS Santos - 2013 Jays Closer

Outside of the uncertainty of who is going to start at 2nd base for the Blue Jays, the other big question for the opening day line-up will be who is the "Closer"?

Two options seem to be the most logical at the present time. Option 1.  Casey Janssen, The 2012 closer, who was appointed after option 2 went down with a nasty injury.  Option 2. Sergio Santos, The guy who was supposed to be the 2012 closer, but struggled out of the gate only to get sidelined with an injury that just seemed to get worse as the season went on to finally end up resulting in shoulder surgery and Santos being shut down for the entire season.

Normally you would think that Janssen would be the obvious choice to slot back into the "Closer" role, but Janssen himself had some unexpected surgery on his should this off-season himself.  Apparently this was not a major surgery, but i'm no Doctor so I would think it may have some type of effect on him, which leaves me to believe that the question of who is going to be the go to guy out of the Jays pen  is still filled with uncertainty.

If I was calling the shots right now Janssen would be my guy!  Over the course of the past three seasons he has been outstanding, especially considering the tough division that he pitches in.  Take a look at his numbers of the past two years and you can see that he has been the measure of consistency in the Blue Jays bullpen.


His WHIP, ERA SO/BB,  have all been incredible and shows you how great Janssen's been.

Santos only really has question marks around him,  1st he didn't pitch all that well at the start of the season and his injury last season just seemed to get worse as the season went on.  Word is that he will be 100% ready to go at the start of spring training, and he'll be ready to pitch lights out when he does, but with the uncertainty that surrounds him I would have to think that he'll be the set-up man role to start the season.

Other options that you could see as the closer.....Steve Delabar. The guy has great swing and miss stuff, exactly what you want from your closer. While with that Jays he had a K/9 ratio of 14.1.  Dirty stuff.... Rafeal Soriano.  There are a few rumors here or there that the Jays may be in on Rafeal Soriano, it would be great but the $$$ tied to him and draft pick compensation would make this hard to believe possible.

So all in all I think Casey Janssen will be the closer for 2013, he's been great for the past 3 years and minus a minor surgery there really isn't any reason  to think he won't be the closer when April comes around.  Go Jays Go!

Side Note.....I left the room today while I writing this post and my wife thought she was funny and added in the comment below.  I thought i'd keep it in as she is actually pretty funny!  Enjoy.

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Janssen sounds like gizzem and Santos sounds an awful lot like Satan.  coincidence?  This expert doesn't think so.

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