Glen Perkins top 5 closer???

[greengoblinrulz]

Today on ESPN 1500, Jeff Dubay has been arguing that the Twins closer is top 5 & is astonished he was only added to all star game as an injury replacement to Jessie Crain. He is very solid but without a full yr as a closer & finishing for one of MLB worst teams doesn't do it for me.

Where do you rank him??

 

I have

Rivera

Kimbrell

Chapman

Nathan

Soriano

Papelbon

Balfour

Promo

Ahead of Glen but arguable

Grill I

Frieri

Johnson

Rodney

[Nick Nelson]

Looking at his numbers, I don't think you can really make an argument that he's not elite. If the Twins were a better team he'd probably be in the discussion for tops in the game.

[JB_Iowa]

I don't know how you decide. There's both the longevity question and also the "losing team question."

 

Is the pressure the same closing for a team going nowhere as it is for a contender? (Honestly I don't know the answer to that - in some ways you could argue that it is more because they don't get as many opportunities but I still think there must be added pressure when you are really in a race.)

Perkins is very good. I just don't think that there's enough evidence to decide whether he is top 5.

[Danchat]

If he can continue his stat line for the next 2 years, then I'll believe it.

He's only been the closer for about a full year now.

[greengoblinrulz]

I'm a huge believer in him but he just haant had the time in as well as closing any games that matter

[Jeff P]

If the All Star teams were truly just chosen on current year performance, then he would have a great argument that Perkins should be in no matter what. To say that Perkins is top 5 muddies the waters a bit because of the longevity question. The other point is that there are a lot of great closers so somewhat like defining an "ace" it gets tough to draw the line. Among the list above there are a bunch of guys who I think are pretty close.