Yes We Cam!

Oh Cam Inman. I know you don't know me. And I don't know you. But Just by the title of your article I can tell you are dying for an introduction:

Brian Wilson's clutchness is how championships are built

Well, you just gave me a hypothosis this blog can really work with. I haven't been this excited since I got a cherry red Yamaha moped for my 10th birthday.

Giants closer Brian Wilson is at it again.

Let's just hope "it" isn't "years of drug abuse and mental illness" like another famous Brian Wilson.

Pitching in a game before adoring fans, that is.

Ha! Cause the singer version went nuts you see. And I'm using it for comedic fodder. Wonderful.

Has there been any bigger news out of spring training than Wilson's successful Cactus League debut Sunday?

What does that have to do with trying to build a beach in your living room?

Apologies to Barry Zito's ever-lasting contract, Brandon Belt's eye-opening swing, and, on the A's side, Hideki Matsui's paparazzi.
The Giants vitally need Wilson to defend their long-awaited world championship. On Sunday, he worked a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts and a lineout, showing no signs of a sore back kept him out of earlier exhibitions.

I have no idea what the previous three things have to do with Wilson. Zito's contract, Belt's swing and paparazzi have no effect on Wilson.

What a perfect reminder the Giants have a reliable closer, rather than just a charismatic one whose popularity has gone global via late-night talk shows and a one-night stand at Charlie Sheen's lodge.
Go ask the 1990 A's, the last Bay Area team to try defending a World Series crown. They relied on Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley and he delivered 48 regular-season saves (15 more than he had in 1989) en route to a third straight World Series.

Isn't Dennis Eckersley's most famous moment BLOWING a game by giving up a homerun to Kirk Gibson? Guess he was "out-clutched" that day.

Wilson set a Giants record with 48 saves last regular season, then came six more saves in their magical postseason.
But it wasn't all easy. Game 2 of the National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves backfired, when Wilson entered in the eighth inning.
A six-out save? For the first time in his career? It didn't happen. The Braves rallied from a 4-1 deficit, the Giants lost 5-4 and Wilson didn't shirk the media glare, saying afterward: "When I'm called upon, I enjoy being the stopper."

Wow, it's like being clutch is something bestowed upon a player only in retrospect, as opposed to being an actual ability. Or maybe, you can be clutch one day, but not the next. Can you be clutch and still fail? That's the real question. For people who care about such superstitions.

He savors the drama -- sometimes self-induced -- as well as the accompanying spotlight.

Very true, he has a drama-savor factor (DSF) of .753. That is of course, on the Jeterian scale where Derek Jeter is a perfect 1.00 and A-rod is a bottomed-out .001.

Lots of pitchers can throw fastballs over 90 mph. How many have the mentality to throw a full-count slider past Nelson Cruz for a World Series-winning strikeout?

How on earth would you qualify this? Honestly? How many pitchers have ever had the oppurtunity to throw a full-count pitch to Nelson Cruz in the World Series, when he represents the final out?

"More guts than stuff," read TBS' scouting report on Wilson as he took the mound for his Game 2 outing against the Braves.

Hey boss, should we list: What pitches he throws? Speed? Tendencies? Nah, screw that, just put up some generic comment we got from a message board.

Hey, no guts, no glory, right?

That's what the movie posters say.

Yes, Wilson has guts, and they wonderfully complement his underrated "stuff" that proved championship caliber.

Whose Championship Caliber? The teams? His? His "Stuff's"?
He also has the galaxy's best beard, a revived Twitter account and a unique persona that works as a video-game pitchman.

All good for making money, means nothing for winning rings.

With a championship ring and World Series-winning baseball in his possession, he is more worthy of a reality show than two years ago, when "The Life of Brian" last aired on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.
A two-time All-Star, he has the proper mindset, the growing confidence and a flame-throwing arm that (hard to imagine) sat idle in 2003 after Tommy John surgery.
He turns 29 on March 16, so more aches, tweaks and sore backs may be in his future. But he isn't one to rest on his ever-increasing laurels.

What do these "facts" have to do with his "clutchness building championships" as the title of the article insists?
Yes, Wilson has a routine. Some folks may interpret that as his entertaining and comical sideshow. But his on-field work is much more important, and it shows with three-up-three-down fashion, as was the case Sunday. That is how you close a show.
Go ask Armando Benitez how hard that was to do in a Giants uniform four years ago.

It's harder to close in a Giants uniform than in a Royals one? Or a Rockies one? Do you use like a really itchy fabric to make them?

Go ask Tiger Woods if he'll ever regain his closing-round magic on the golf course.
Go ask the 49ers and Raiders if they'll ever again find a quarterback who can rule the two-minute drills.

I like that the reporter, who has access to these athletes, is requesting the audience go do what is essentially his job. You can get a press badge for Pebble Beach, why don't you go ask Tiger. It's your article Cam.

Wilson saved four games that touched off wild celebrations in a month span last season, starting with a National League West-clinching win Oct. 3 and following with three series-clinching saves in the playoffs.
If coffee is for closers -- see: Alec Baldwin in "Glengarry Glen Ross" -- then pour Wilson another cup. None of that decaffeinated stuff, either.

In the spirit of that last line:

Fuckin Case Fuckin Closed You Worthless Sacks Of Shit.

I'm really not trying to pick on Sky

It's just he keeps writing commentaries that are marred with fallacious logic. I'm going to skip to the conclusion of his article:


Even a great closer like Nathan rarely makes a huge difference

The Twins will most likely be replacing Nathan and his 1.80 ERA with a guy whose ERA is 1.5 to 2 runs higher. Whereas Nathan would likely allow just 14 runs in his customary 70 innings of work, his replacement will probably allow nearly double that amount. When you factor in that the closer's innings are worth about 70-percent more than regular innings because of the highly important situations in which they pitch, the number of effective runs given away due to Nathan's absence is about 22. Add in the fact that the Twins' other relievers will now be pitching in more important roles and the math says that the overall impact of the Nathan injury is about 30 runs, translating to about three wins.
Three wins. Losing a closer -- even one of the greatest of all time -- simply isn't terribly costly.
Don't get me wrong, three wins is nothing to sneeze at, and teams pay big money for that kind of production, but in the end even the mighty Nathan is worth only a handful of games. Losing the best closer in baseball may feel like a huge blow to Twins fans, but the reality is that his absence won't dramatically change the course of Minnesota's season. If the Twins finish .500 this year, it probably won't be accurate for fans to say, "If only we had Nathan, we could have been contenders." Likewise, if you thought the Twins would be great before the injury, the loss won't prevent Minnesota from still being a very good ball club.

Just 3 wins. Last year the Twins won the division thanks to a play-in game. The year before that, the Twins lost the division on a play-in game. 2006, division was decided by 1 game. So 3 of the last 4 years, the division has been decided by 1 game. Also, I know Sky didn't waste time doing any real calculations on this, and couldn't be bother to go here, but Nathan has a WAR of about 2 for the last 3 years.

I love how Sky throws in that "teams pay big money for that kind of production" casually when describing how unimportant Nathan is to the Twins.

The real impact of Nathan's injury -- if he does indeed require season-ending surgery -- will only occur if the Twins are once again on the cusp of making the playoffs. If so, his absence could be enough to cause Minnesota to narrowly miss the postseason.

I already pointed that out. That's why his injury does matter.

Various experts have the Twins picked to finish around .500 this season, although with no clear leader in the AL Central, one could easily see the White Sox, Indians, Tigers or Twins all having a legitimate chance at winning the division.

What about the Royals?!?!

It's true that the loss of Nathan is a blow to the Twins' chances, but in the big picture Minnesota's championship hopes will rest far more on the performance of the other 24 players in the clubhouse than on whether or not Joe Nathan is healthy.

Good point Sky, the other 24 players are more valuable than 1 closer.

Case closed!