Back to Borowski?

A brief respite from our 2005 Closer Preview - we've got to discuss the closer battles while they're still happening, right?

Throughout the winter, it appeared to be a foregone conclusion that the Cubs would acquire a new closer for 2005. LaTroy Hawkins blew 9 saves in only a half-season in the closer role - a record pace - and Joe Borowski seemed to be completely out of gas.

While the Cubs' name came up in connection with essentially every free agent closer (Troy Percival, Armando Benitez), and some trade-bait closers (Jorge Julio, Dan Kolb, Ugueth Urbina), and while GM Jim Hendry repeatedly talked up Ryan Dempster for the closer role, Hendry ultimately opted to take no action, and enter 2005 with a bullpen long on fantastic young arms, but lacking an "established closer".

Or is it?

The allegedly washed-up Joe Borowski came into camp thinner, rested, allegedly throwing at his pre-injury velocity, and ready to reassume his role as the Cubs' stopper. As Rob Glowacki of The Cub Reporter pointed out today, Joe Borowski was simply fantastic in 2002 and 2003:

2002 2.73 ERA, 95.1 IP, 9.13 K/9, 3.35 K/BB, .678 OPS, .715 OPS vs RH, .626 vs LH
2003 2.63 ERA, 68.1 IP, 8.69 K/9, 3.47 K/BB, .554 OPS, .516 OPS vs RH, .609 vs LH

Wow. Now obviously, Borowski was never the prototype closer.
He doesn't blow the ball past hitters - he's gotten people out by putting the ball exactly where he'd planned to, especially with a nifty slider that he isn't afraid to throw when he's behind in the count. When he was put into the most pressure-packed situation in Cub history, in the immediate aftermath of the Bartman/Alou incident and with 100 years of history on his shoulders, Borowski immediately proceeded to get the inning-ending double-play ball. It's not his fault that things went downhill from there.

In 2004, it seemed that JoBo's luck had finally run out. We soon learned, however, that his troubles were injury-related - he'd damaged his rotator cuff.

Last week, Dusty Baker hinted that he'd already made up his mind about who the closer will be, but refused to let us in on the secret. Baker stated that "It's in my mind. It's not on my lips. It's been in my mind", but added that Borowski is "getting better every day".

While Rob Glowacki of the The Cub Reporter (which, to digress, has been the preeminent Cubs blog, so every Cub fan should read it, along with Cub Town) thinks that Dusty's loyalty will lead him to name Hawkins as his 2005 closer, I read the situation differently. Dusty Baker has long followed the theory that a player should not lose his job due to injury - to wit, Baker benched a white-hot Todd Walker in 2004 in favor of Mark Grudzielanek. If Borowski can get people out in spring 2005, there's no reason to think that Baker won't hand him the ball in the ninth inning going forward.