Turn out the lights and let's go home...

I was watching Zack Greinke pitch last night and WOW does he have it going on. Another stellar performance. 8 innings, 8 hits, 5ks, 0 walks 1ER. We are creeping close to the halfway point and the guy still has a sub 2.00 ERA (1.90). He’s got 111k’s and only 18 walks! That’s Pedro or Shilling in their prime-like.

So the 9th inning comes along and in comes Joakim Soria. How is this guy NOT on everyone’s radar? The guy gets the cover of the video game “MLB 09 The Show” and their are kids across America going, “who’s that?”

I know he’s in KC, but still! Yeah, he's been nicked up a bit this year, but he doesn’t have a history of that. The guy is lights out. For my money he’s the best closer in the AL (Broxton in the NL).

Watching the game last night I found out that last year he was only the 14th pitcher in MLB history to have more saves than hits allowed. Not too shabby for a guy virtually no one talks about.

It seems like forever, the number one closer ranking belonged to Mariano. No more, there are some new young guns out there. For my money, if I need three outs, I’m calling on one of these 5 guys.

1) Jonathan Broxton
2) Joakim Soria
3) Joe Nathan
4) Jonathan Papelbon
5) Francisco Rodriguez
6) Josh Bolan (oh sorry, that’s me….)

Josh Bolan is a retired AP baseball reporter and now works as a freelance writer in Fresno California. Josh has been contributing to baseball publications as a writer since 1996.