Good-bye Joe

[cavalier1968]

If you ever close for us again.......it would make our manager (who is sometimes inept) and our front office, morons.

Cav

Take your 82 mph fastball somewhere else....

[hellborn]

It was nuts for him to be the closer last season, too.
How can you make a guy with no stuff, unexceptional control, and no out pitch your closer?
A guy's attitude doesn't matter if he can't pitch.
(this applies to Todd Jones, too)

[KCGHOST]

It's tough to keep seeing Borowski heading to the hill in the 9th with a lead. The Tribe will have to do something. Making the right choice can be difficult. Just moving Betancourt doesn't solve the problem. First of all somebody has to pitch the innings that Borowski is consuming. Second Betancourt might be one of those guys whose great in the 8th but can't pitch the 9th.

[BoofBonser26]

It's tough to keep seeing Borowski heading to the hill in the 9th with a lead. The Tribe will have to do something. Making the right choice can be difficult. Just moving Betancourt doesn't solve the problem. First of all somebody has to pitch the innings that Borowski is consuming. Second Betancourt might be one of those guys whose great in the 8th but can't pitch the 9th.

It was nuts for him to be the closer last season, too.
How can you make a guy with no stuff, unexceptional control, and no out pitch your closer?
A guy's attitude doesn't matter if he can't pitch.
(this applies to Todd Jones, too)

Actually, last year Borowski wasn't as bad as he seemed, since most of the time all he had to do was NOT explode like an oil refinery catching fire. Now, that still makes him a crappy pitcher.

Now, though, he has shown that he can't even be counted on to not do the above. His time with the Tribe is hopefully over with his DL stint starting today.

As far as Betancourt goes - he would best be used in the "Relief Ace" fashion. Odds Wedge will do this?

zero (0)

[hellborn]

I did see in another thread that Borowski was horrible last year in non-save situations, better when he was coming in for a save (~3.70 ERA).
If the non-save games were blowouts, then he was somewhat better than his raw ERA suggests. If they were tie games or games where the Tribe was barely trailing, then he was probably even worse.
Still, you can just watch the guy pitch and see that he's not closer material. Foulke was brilliant in his prime as a closer even though he didn't have much of a FB, because he had tremendous control and an out pitch (the killer change). Joe, I don't know how he gets people out, other than luck.