Closer?  Yeah, we have a great closer!

I try not to watch too much baseball until the playoffs, too boring.  I'll occasionally catch a summer Red Sox game down here in Connecticut when they are on ESPN or playing those dreaded Yankees on local cable.

But come playoff time I will tune in to the end of any playoff game that is close hoping for an exciting ending.  This year has been unusual in that no one can seem to close a game anymore (with the exception of Mariano Rivera of course).

Take a look at the implosions of this murderer row of fearsome closers.  Would your predictive analytics software have been able to forecast these performances?

Houston Street - Rockies

blew a 2 run lead and the winning run in the 9th inning of a playoff elimination game after closing 35 of 37 opportunities all season.


Jonathan Papelbon - Red Sox
 
blew a 3 run lead and was removed without finishing the 9th after saving 47 of 51 during the season.

Joe Nathan - Twins

blew a 2 run lead in the ninth to the Yankees after making 47 of 52 saves during the season.

I would love to hear how predictive analytics would have predicted any one of these performances based on the plateora of statistics that are available on these great players.  I'm guessing team management and fans of the Red Sox, Twins, and Rockies would like to be enlightened as well.  There's always next year!