It's hard to write walk-off related stories about closers who don't drop throws back from the mound (see the piece below) to lose games, and I don't want to write just any old story about J.J. Putz. Needless to say, I like the acquisition, and here's why, in it's simplest form... Alex Rodriguez career vs J.J. Putz 0-for-7, 2 K David Ortiz career vs J.J. Putz 0-for-7, 5 K Derek Jeter career vs J.J. Putz 1-for-8, 4 K Manny Ramirez vs J.J. Putz 2-for-11, 7 K That's a combined 3-for-33 with 18 strikeouts against four elite hitters with whom we've become quite familiar. I have a feeling Mr. Putz is going to handle New York just fine.
A blog devoted to cataloguing New York Mets walk-offs and other trivia. For those unaware of the definition of walk-off just replace the term with the words "game-ending" and you should have a much better understanding of the phrase.