Poll: Who Will Be the Jays Closer This Year?

[Wally West]

Who do you guys think will be the Jays closer this season? Who's looked good and who's looked bad?

[Wo1verine]

I think it's going to be Francisco! Just because he's shown he pitches very, very good VS Left-handed batters.

[kelso]

Francisco. I think he, Rauch & Dotel are here because Frasor and Camp can't do it. They werent going to keep Downs, so its by commttiee unless one of these guys distances himself from the pack.

As mentioned earlier, Francisco is great against lefties, but if Rauch can get it going, there is something to be said about someone that looks like that, who stands 6'10", throwing hard stuff at you in the late innings. He wins on the intimidation meter bigtime.

if those two fail, we still hove Dotel which is great. Lots of options for Coach.

[satyr9]

I think it'll be Francisco too, but the one thing I don't like about all these guys having some closing experience is every freaking blown save is likely to become a referendum on who should close. Not necessarily on this board, but in general one guy could be absolutely killing it, then blow 2/3 over a week and all of a sudden it's a crisis and this could repeat 3-4 times unless things go almost perfect.

I think the plan is good, I just don't like the attention it's likely to draw. So while I say I think it'll be Francisco and I think they traded for him as a potential long-term option in the spot, I think we'll probably have a month or two of whose got the hot hand in the beginning and if someone else holds onto it, they may wind up with the job all year so it's not some firm conviction or anything.

[The_Hater]

No votes for Dotel, the guy with the most closer experience? Interesting.

I think that Francisco starts the season but without a shortage or options, he better start fast if he wants to keep it. In Texas last year he lost his closer job after just a few weeks before pitching great as a set-up man.