In Korea baseball culture, a relief pitcher means you aren't good enough to start a game. It's almost an embarassment to be a relief pitcher over there. closers are a dime a dozen. so easy to find.

Har har, Duk. Speaking of overrated closers, what were the Cubs doing trading for a washed-up Gregg? Hoping to catch Borowski/Todd Jones lightning in a bottle?
Besides, the Mets are gonna let Fuentes and K-Rod price themselves down with the threat of trading for Street or Jenks.

What Tony LaRussa giveth, Tony LaRussa taketh away.

Real closers pitched the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings. Nowadays these characters include the likes of the Joe Borowski's leading the league in saves. Give me a break. Any real MLB pitcher worth his salt should be able to get through one stinking inning without getting bombed. $15M for what? Let them all go back to the minors and learn what it feels like to be part of the actual human race again. K-Rod is a product of Mike's managerial skills. He'll do just as well with another guy who can throw 15-20 pitches at the major league level. Other managers will, too. Closers are OVER-RATED! If guys can't get outs when they're needed, they don't belong on a major league staff. Any pitcher should be available at any time to get an out. The mentality of 'needing' a closer to do this is absurd. But, then again, so is the entire payroll structure of this game.

Closing is cheap labor, most teams outside of Manchester United (I meant the New York teams) have to spend their money elsewhere - most organizations can find a Derrick Turnbow in the system to get them through a year before they find someone else.

Actually, if a team could outsource a closer from India, they'd do it...

Closers are OVER-RATED?!?!? Closers are a dime a dozen?!?!? I'm really curious as to how many of you really looked over any given major league pitching roster and project just how many of those guys can be considered for shutting down the heart of the order for the opposition. Some of you guys think that you can plug anyone in to face the likes of Utley, Howard, Burell, with three runs or less, and get 'em out w/o any problems? (Rule of thumb players, top/bottom of 9th holding a three run lead, IT'S STILL a ball game, for obvious reasons.) There are reasons why some guys are mop up relievers, middle relievers, set-up man, and finally closers. Look at the Mets, Mariners, A's, Colorado, this past season which struggled to close out games most times on the winning side. Johan Santana won 13 games regardless of how he pitched. Felix didn't even win 10 games, due to pen blowing the lead for him in more than a dozen games. So just how many of those guys that linked the starter to the end of the game can you count on now (should be the obvious question?) How OVER-RATED are closers now? How many of those so called dime a dozen closer can you count on when the above mentioned obvious happens/end?
The only REAL shutout closer a team has, is to take your #1 or #2 starter/s and convert them into guys that can hold a lead in either the top or bottom of the 9th inning. If you do that, then who/m fills the vacated spot/s of the obvious position/s? The guys that can't hold a lead from the 5th to 8th inning? Put these guys in the rotation, and you got a seriously overtaxed pen throughout the course of the season, seeing how you just flip flopped your team's obvious problem the other way around. So, yeah sure you can plug just about anyone into that spot for the fact.. sure any team can find a Derick Turnbow to fill the gap for a season..lest we forget that guys like Turnbow, Jenks were either let go/not protected on the 40 man roster, due to either an injury or...and also like to point out that some of these guys were highly touted prospects at one time in whatever organization they came from.
Now as far as the SABR school is concerned, as I've stated to someone (who is such a Billy Beane fanatic) that I've happened to talk with a few times. Numbers are just that numbers. You can't prove anything beyond what's there. We can try to forecast all we want using to so called mean (average career year), low end, high end, and try to project at any given time what that player's perceived worth might be, but... let's not forget that one thing numbers will never be able to prove, and that is intent. Because in order to prove intent there has to be free will/determinism.. thus the human equation is applicable here...to follow that up, the very thing most people try to exclude using statistical analysis is the very thing analysis needs to prove it's theory. So what did we really prove? That guys fail? Even that SABR fanatic I've talked to agreed that numbers are good to an extent, as did I, but nothing beats a good pair of eyes. (Colleges now have files on potential future major leaguers when they are in Jr. High, so hence the whole notion of nothing beats a good pair of eyes.)

K-fraud deserves a 1 million dollar contract!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i know that "clutch" isn't a term that's used anymore in baseball discussion...but doesn't it help explain why krod doesn't have a deal? the save statistic is useless but dominant relief pitching (yes, including the closer) is difficult to find. look no further than the mets/phils situation this past year. krod is far from dominant and blows too many saves to be considered "clutch".
mediocre starting pitchers routinely get 11 or 12 mil/per just to eat innings as a 4th starter. go ask adam eaton and carlos silva. krod will get his.

Hey Jay L, what exactly are you trying to say anyway? The truth is that closers ARE overrated and easily replacable. Pitchers end up in the bullpen because they are simply not good enough to be starters. Period. Now they're getting voted into the Hall of Fame? Goose Gossage was made into a starter in 1976 while he was young and still with the White Sox. He went 9-17 with a 3.95 ERA and 1.35 WHIP. His K/BB ratio was 1.5....hardly impressive numbers. Remember how Eck looked like he was washed up by the time the Cubs dumped him. Fingers started his carreer as a spot starter/mop up for Oakland without much success also. These are supposed to be among the greatest players of all time? Nonsense. Good to see teams are finally wising up and not paying anything more than a minimal amount for bullpen arms these days.

Closers are essential integral members of the rotation. Any and All clubs need a starter, relief / set up, and a closer. A closer not only has the added pressure of "one mess up and you lose the game for your team" mentality when they step up onto the mound but they also usually face the toughest part of the opponent line up.
About K-Rod, he sucks. He's NEVER, in his record setting season, saved or won a game where he started in the 8th inning. He only saved or won games in the 9th inning. Papelbon and RIvera are true closers. You can put them in in the 7th, 8th, or 9th inning and get you the win / save.
If k-rod is given a major contract, i think papelbon and rivera would laugh. If some hack like k-rod is able to get a large contract, it means that papelbon and rivera will get that much more.