Questions about the closer: what makes for greatness?

First and foremost, happy MLB Opening Day 2017 (part two?)!  Despite the fact that the first three of this season's 4,860 major league match-ups took place yesterday, it didn't feel like baseball had really begun given all the teams waiting until today to play.  Regardless, we've finally arrived and the season is fully under way.  To mark this occasion, my season-long challenge to post every day begins now, fittingly with my first weekly feature.  

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What exactly is the definition of a great closer?  

In terms of sheer volume, Mets closer Jeurys Familia took top prize in 2016.  ESPN agreed in their "MLB Closer Report" for 2016, listing Familia first.  The format of this report is simple: a line of stats and rows for each qualifying player, prioritizing -- in this case -- the number of saves.  (Only after writing this article did I realize several limitations of this "report," such as not properly registering combined numbers from players who were traded to other teams during the season, and so I turned to the more reliable "Sortable Stats" at MLB.com to revise before posting.)  Beyond his league-leading 51 saves, Familia also met or surpassed most of his competition in terms of innings pitched, games, and games finished.  Familia's save percentage ranked high at 91.1%, though Zach Britton clearly set the bar with an otherworldly 100% across 47 saves.  

Despite these numbers declaring Familia's success, he was left off several recent lists of top closers. In "2017's Top 10 Right Now: Relief Pitchers," MLB.com's Mike Petriello noted that uncertainty surrounding Familia's pending suspension removed him from the running.  Given that this was published before his fewer-than-some-predicted 15-game suspension was announced, as well as the "right now" filter in the title, this makes sense.

Elsewhere, sites such as the New York Daily News and The K Zone have released their "best of" lists for closers entering the 2017 season.  With some variation, the top five on these two aforementioned lists are quite similar.  For instance, Kenley Jansen, closer for the LA Dodgers, tops both lists, followed by Aroldis Chapman (NY Yankees), Zach Britton (Baltimore Orioles), Mark Melancon (SF Giants), and Wade Davis (Chicago Cubs).  Seung-hwan Oh (St. Louis Cardinals) takes fourth place on the Daily News list with Davis in sixth, while The K Zone has Oh in sixth and Davis in fifth.  There is clearly some consensus here regarding what makes for an excellent closer.  

The question remains: what exactly is the definition of a great closer?  In terms of quantity, Familia's league-leading number of saves failed to put him on top of or even anywhere inside the top ten on these lists (he ranked 15th on the Daily News' list).  In terms of quality, Britton's league-leading 100% in save opportunities failed to push him into first place.  Furthermore, Britton's 0.54 ERA over 67 innings pitched was not enough to earn him the top spot.  

Why do Jansen and Chapman stand out so clearly above the others?  For one, their postseason heroics in 2016 certainly demonstrated their worth to anyone willing to notice.  Beyond this, though, are a multitude of other statistical accomplishments that are clear upon a deeper dive into the numbers, as noted in the brief write-ups that accompany the Daily News' rankings.  These stats -- including K/BB ratio, WHIP, and many more -- serve to complicate rather than to clarify the answer to the closer question.  The fact that some articles, like the Daily News list, are published with fantasy baseball participants as their intended audience may serve to add further complexity.  

(It occurs to me that researching the memorable closers of recent and distant baseball history may be more helpful than a look into a single season, so expect more to follow on this at some point in the future.)

For now, suffice it to say that a great closer is a player on whom the manager can call to finish the work his other players have begun.  A great closer must be consistent and reliable in spite of the increased pressure of his role, so as to drive any doubt from the manager's mind -- and the fans' minds -- before he steps onto the mound for his first pitch.  And, ideally, a great closer should be dominant: he is, after all, the final pitcher you'll see before leaving the ballpark or switching off the television... that is, if he has been successful.


SOURCES:
- "2016 Regular Season Sortable Stats." MLB.com. CLICK HERE FOR LINK.
- Duffy, Mike. "Top 10 Closers." The K Zone: Baseball News and Interviews by Mike Duffy. https://thekzonenews.wordpress.com/2017/03/31/top-10-closers/
- "MLB Closer Report: 2016." ESPN. ​http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/closers/_/year/2016. 
- Petriello, Mike.  "2017's Top 10 Right Now: Relief Pitchers."  http://m.mlb.com/news/article/213303526/miller-tops-top-10-relief-pitchers-for-2017/
​- ROTOEXPERTS. "Fantasy Baseball 2017: Top 25 Relief Pitchers." New York Daily News. March 21, 2017. www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/fantasy-baseball-2017-top-25-relief-pitchers-article-1.3004240