Former Tazewell High School star Billy Wagner continues to rack up the saves and strikeouts as the closer for the Atlanta Braves.
He also continues to hear the same questions over and over again.
Will he postpone his planned retirement and be back in 2011?
“No, I’m done,” he told an ESPN.com reporter last week after shutting down the New York Mets in the ninth inning.
For real?
“Yeah, I’m done,” Wagner uttered to a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter after slamming the door shut on the Phillies in the ninth inning recently.
Come on Wags, not one more season to show off that left-handed arm?
“No chance,” Wagner told the Associated Press after notching his 400th career save.
Certainly sounds like Wagner is hanging it up and I’d take his word for it.
It’s one of those Southwest Virginia qualities that makes Wagner admirable. Like the hardworking and honest people from the area in which he was raised, a person’s word or promise is taken at face
value.
When you say you’re going to do something, you do it.
Wagner announced a couple of months ago that this would be his last big league season. So, expect that to be the case.
It’s hard to picture this country boy waffling on his choice or it being a “will he, won’t he” deal throughout the offseason. He’s not Brett Favre.
He wouldn’t have said he was retiring and wants to spend more time with his family if he didn’t fully believe it.
Still, it’s hard not to admire what he’s done this season for the Braves and wonder how much he has left.
He’s 5-0 with 20 saves and a 1.21 ERA. Not bad for a guy who many believed was done two years ago after undergoing major elbow surgery.
It’s just the sixth time in 16 big league seasons that’s he entered the Major League Baseball All-Star break with 20 or more saves.
He wasn’t initially placed on the All-Star team even though he earned a spot. He was offered a chance as an injury replacement on Saturday, but declined to rest his sore ankle and look ahead to the
second half of the season.
What awaits him?
He’s creeping up on two milestones that would make him – statistically speaking – the best left-handed relief pitcher of all time.
He needs just 22 strikeouts to surpass Jesse Orosco for the most K’s by a southpaw reliever. Twenty more saves and he’ll claim the record for saves by a lefty, overtaking John Franco in the record book.
He also may get another chance at the postseason.
Wagner has been reliable in his role and has also offered some sage advice/mentoring to the plethora of young pitchers the Braves employ.
He’s a primary reason why the team holds a four-game lead in the National League East Division.
Playing deep into October has to be something Wagner is hungry for. Success in the playoffs is the only thing absent from his potential Hall of Fame resume.
He’s 1-1 with three saves and a 10.32 ERA in 13 career postseason appearances and has never reached the World Series.
Who knows what the season’s second half has in store for Wagner, who is 12 days away from his 39th birthday.
One thing is guaranteed – he’ll continue to get peppered with questions regarding his future.
thayes@bristolnews.com | Twitter: thayes@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2570
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