At the beginning of the season we ranked what we thought would be the top 10 closers in baseball. With just a few weeks left in the season it’s time to see how we did.
Below are our rankings of the current 10 best closers, based on a number of different categories including saves, blown saves, and ERA. Below each is who we had ranked there way back in April.
10. Tom Wilhelmsen, Seattle Mariners; 2012 Pitching stats: 24/27 saves/opportunities, 2.58 ERA, 66.3 innings, 9.9 strikeouts/nine innings, 3.5 walks/nine innings, 1.15 walks/hits per inning—The 28-year-old Wilhelmsen, in his second season in the majors, stepped into the closer’s role on June 4 and has amassed all 24 of his saves since then.
We had: Drew Storen who missed the entire first half of the season following surgery to remove a bone chip from his right elbow.
9. Tyler Clippard, Washington Nationals; 2012 Pitching stats: 30/34 saves/opportunities, 3.09 ERA, 64 innings, 10.7 strikeouts/nine innings, 3.8 walks/nine innings, 1.05 walks/hits per inning—Clippard has filled the closer’s role nicely in Storen’s absence. Having had just one career save entering this season, the former All-Star (as a setup man in 2011) is sixth in saves for the first-place Nationals.
We had: Heath Bell who averaged 44 saves a year the last three years, has posted a 5.63 ERA this season with 19 saves in 26 opportunities.
