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In 66 appearances last season, Billy Wagner was 2–2 with a 2.63 ERA, during which opponents hit .216 against him.
He closed out 34 of 39 save opportunities in 2007.
However, his ERA has gone up each of the last three seasons, from 1.51 in 2005 to 2.24 in 2006 to 2.63 last year.
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depends on the situation… regular season, meaningless game against NL Central, I’d say 5. pressure situations though, I’d give him a 2.5
Isn’t that the case with every closer but one?
He’s no Brad Lidge though.
[pure sarcasm for those not aware]
Wagner is thestill the man and I go to him every time.
I don’t know how much I trust the guy at the end of the season. He always seems unhittable in the early going, but all gassed out by August and what was the deal with him missing games in obvious save situations the last two months of ‘07? If I recall he has almost a week straight off and appeared only tiwce in like 13 games….that being said, he’s still our best option at this point.
I believe Wagner is a serious concern… He is a 1 pitch pitcher.. and as he get older and b/c of his small frame.. his fastball will lose a few mph’s.. making him very hitable. There is a huge difference from a 93mph to 97mph fastball
meaningless regular season game: 90%
important regualar season game: 49%
post-season game: 20%
The next post should read, “Is Billy Wagner Clutch?” … to which most of us would say NO.
can’t give him a 5 but he definitely deserves a 4 or 4.5. he can be great for stretches but if he gets out of his rhythm he can lose it quick. but the same can be said for most closers. i have seen that with just about all closers except for Gagne that year he broke the consecutive save record. of course he was all juiced up at the time.
i like wagner and have to support the guy. i got to meet him and get a ball autographed when he first came to NY and he was a real nice guy.
plus by the time he gets in a game, i’ve had my 16th metal blue bud light bottle and am ready to rock out to Enter Sandman.
I ran into him at spring training last year … he wasn’t so nice to us.
I give him a 3 … it’s an average between regular season games and important pressure games.
“i like wagner and have to support the guy. i got to meet him and get a ball autographed when he first came to NY and he was a real nice guy.”
irrelevant. i’m sure aaron sele is a great guy. i don’t want him closing games.
billy is in the top 10 closers (not saying much) so i’d certainly keep him.
thanks zen or should i call you captain obvious.
and all this time i was under the impression that nice guys finish first.
forgive me for throwing in personal anecdotes about met players I am assessing
i just glad mota didn’t give you an autograph and a pat on the behind :)
ooh! A spat!
I agree I would give Wangner a 5 but to me a #5 is Hoffman to me is the best closer in the National league, but others may think different. I think Wangner could be a #5 closer if he works real hard at it which he does but some pitchers just have it some days and other days not so much.
Mikey_ff I think your wrong Billy could or can be a clutch! To me I think Billy is one those pitchers who have it some days to help us get the game done and other days he just doesn’t have it. I think more Mets fans have more faith in him than you do apprarently.
And he is a great autograph signer everytime I get to see the Mets play when they come to my home state I get a chance to get Wanger! As long as your polite and not interupting their practice most players will take the time to sign!
Did you know that…..
Billy Wagner is the all-time leading active pitcher (over 750 innings pitched) with respect to lowest batting average against?
Do you know who is number 2 on that list? (Armando Benitez)!
blarrgh!! No, don’t link those names! Please!
But I trust Wagner more than I trust Armando. Billy will give you indigestion, true, but he still managed to get a save a lot of the time. Armando would give you indigestion, and then blow the game more often than not.
I trust Mel Rojas more than I trust Armando.
makes perfect sense, the typical armando benitez blown save only includes 1 hit, a mamouth HR.
LOL, so true!
And three walks
thus, this stat is meaningless, especially to Met’s fans.
How could you give a 1… please people…
overreact much?
Seriously, would they rather have On-no-mando Benitez? Ingrates!
Sorry…Oh-No-Mando Benitez…the typo kinda ruined the joke.
Wagner is a top closer in baseball and am very happy we have them, I hate when people criticize him. Do they remember Benitez or Looper?
Looper gets a bum rap.
first, he is not the power pitcher Benitez or Wagner is and thus is not the typical closer.
second, he played hurt most of his last season, without complaint.
I am not saying we should have kept him or that he compares to wagner. Just think he deserves credit for going out there, when there was no one else to do so.
…without complaint, and without letting management know either.
and that’s his point — even a decent closer like Looper was miles worse than Wags. Your top closers in baseball right now all are shaky in big spots — Izzy, FCordero, CCordero, Putz, even Paps — do you really trust any of them more than Wags? Rivera is the only one who seems to be better in the big spots.
I’m not sure if that was his point.
He was saying Looper gets a bum rap and deserves credit because he played hurt “without complaint” in 2005. My point was that it was irresponsible of Looper NOT to let Willie know he was hurting so that Willie could then decide if he wanted someone else to close instead.
It was mets17’s point
Greatest Closer’s of All-Time
1.) Armondo Benetiez
2.) Braden Looper
3.) Brad Lidge
Joe Nathan is the name. Joe. Nathan.
What do you expect, Perfection? Sorry, you’ll have to settle for a visit from him in Spring Training, and that due merely to his child hood friendship with the Boss….
I give him a 2
Billy is weak. Franco, Benitez, Looper, Wagner, he fits the formula perfectly.
what formula?
I gave him a 4.
I’ve been a staunch defender of Willie’s but I have to say that he needs to start making concessions to Wagner’s age. I think he just plain ran out of gas late last season. Willie needs to start mixing it up when it comes to closing situations, especially late in the season. Having said that, I do realize that his options were somewhat limited as the back end of the bullpen was so weak it just put further strain on the front end. Willie didn’t many great bullpen options to work with.
Fire Willie.
Hire Santana.
Retire # 17.
Open a bottle of Johnny Walker and call me in the morning!
C’mon, Newhan wasn’t THAT good…
LOL…
I am not a baseball scout.. but I have no Idea what anyone ever saw in Newhan? No way does he have MLB Skills
David Newhan was still better than Kurt Abbot.
Billy is as good as they come after Rivera and Papelbon. He might give you some heartburn from time-to-time, but more often than not he gets it done.
I was at the game he handed to the skankees; despite his solid ‘07 I’ll never give him more than three out of five.
OMG….that game vs the skanks was a freakin nightmare…i know I take this stuff too seriously somtimes but I was in a daze for days after that…and i have to say according to the stats he is certainly going in the wrong direction and could be really bad, very soon….
Tug and Dr. Ron Taylor get a 5.
Billy is still a 4; did you list # of innings or just ERA?
What about Billy Taylor?
I don’t know how some people can justify giving him a 5. Two years ago, I trusted Duaner 10 times more than I did Billy. He gets a 3.
I think the 5s come from those that realize that he is the 2nd or 3rd best in the game, so they are judging on a scale where the top five are 5s, the next five are 4s, etc.
Yea, but using that scale, you’d be putting him on a par with Mariano, which he’s not.
And the question is about confidence (or lack of) in Billy, not about comparing him to others. As a Mets fan, I couldn’t care less about other closers in baseball, so there’s no real way for me to say that I have more confidence in anyone outside the organization.
Ok. Maybe I could. I just stepped back and visualized Mariano on the Mets, and I would give HIM a 5.
Mariano had 4 blown saves last year and a 3.15 ERA. Wagner had 5 blown saves and a 2.63 ERA. Looks pretty close to me. And don’t try to tell me it’s because Wagner pitches in the NL because closers never face opposing pitchers.
Yes, they are similar until huge games, when Mo becomes unhittable and Wagner resembles Benitez.
You guys have one of the best closers in baseball. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Nobody’s perfect.
Unless they used steroids in 2003
Does anyone know when Wagner will become a free agent? I don’t know if it is just me, but Wagner just does not have it anymore. I know he is much better than Benitez or Looper, but the Mets could do much better. Does anyone else think that Francisco Rodriguez (if or when he becomes a free agent) would be a great fit for the Mets?
I think he has two more years on his contract (’08 included)
I give him a 4 in save situations, but a 2 in non-save
umm ok. im a mets fan and so are we all (hopefully) but last year was a whole team off year. the whole team played terrible and billy is one of the best ever, with that being said if the team is playing well. so is billy
Wags is solid, I get him a 4.
But his mentality makes me sick. The guy readily admits he doesn’t have the same adrenaline pumping if it’s not the ninth inning and a save situation, and it shows in his performance in those spots. So if Billy can’t get a little ‘S’ next to his name, he’s just not as interested. That is the definition of a selfish player.
And as far as ‘big spots’ or ‘clutch’ goes.. wagner gets a bad rap about this. Blown saves stick out like a sore thumb because, luckily with him, they’re rare. People that say they don’t trust a reliever in a ‘big spot’ fail to realize that elite relievers pitch almost exclusively in big spots, so whenever they give up runs it could very well could cost us the game. And not that Heilman is elite, but he gets a lot of undeserved criticism for the same reasons- it’s even worse for him because he’s often in high leverage situations better suited for wags, but he won’t come in because it’s not the 9th. Also consider the fact that Wagner is making the big money and getting the glory. Heilman has a completely thankless job in a brutal market. Point is, they’re both quality relievers and we should all be glad they’re on the mets.
I’m going to sleep.
When I wake up, I’d like Santana to be the ace of the
NY Mets pitching staff.
Thank you and good night…
So, let’s play this out. If we get Santana, then this is our starting rotation:
1. Santana
2. Pedro
3. Maine/Perez
4. Perez/Maine
5. ?
Let’s put Mike “One Pitch” Pelfrey in the bullpen where (for at least now) he belongs. That leaves us with . . . ?
El Duque until he gets hurt.
Heilman?
for any of you who would prefer to keep the prospects instead of johan, watch the tour of new yankee stadium on yankees.com and try to imagine johan pitching for the yanks. itll mak you sick. we need this guy to take over ny.
why are we using ERA to evaluate a RELIEF pitcher? not to mention ERA has been shown to fluctuate from season to season with no correlation to previous seasons. it is an unreliable stat. can we have K/9, K/BB and WHIP, please?
make that “small correlation,” not no correlation.
OK, this Wags poll is great and all, but where is that darn post announcing the time of the press conference about the Church-Fmart-Pelf-Guerra for Santana trade?
Is today, the day?