Source: mlb.com
There are a lot of Henny Pennys out there saying that the sky is falling because Billy Wagner has blown three saves in the early part of this year. Billy Wagner is going to be fine. He is going to blow saves, and hopefully the Mets will be good enough to recover from most of them to win anyway (like they did last night). Wagner's biggest problem is that he is 34 years old and the Mets are paying him to pitch like he's 28 or 29. Though it's not so much Wagner's problem, but rather a problem with the way teams approach free agents. That is, they almost always end up paying players past their prime for what they did throughout their prime. The likelihood that Wagner will pitch from ages 34-37 the way he did from 30-33 is very slim, so any expectation for him to do so will almost certainly go unfulfilled.
I still think Wagner is a dominant closer, but you have to accept the fact that he will likely be slightly worse every year from now until he retires.
Let's go Mets!
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