Billy Wagner threw his last pitch for the Mets this season (and possibly his Mets career) on August 2. Coincidentally, it was also his last blown save of the year - his 7th of the season. With a total of 27 saves on the year, Wagner saved 79.4% of his opportunities. This means he also blew 20.6% of his save opportunities.

This last blown Wagner save came during a pitching duel between Johan Santana and Houston’s Roy Oswalt.

Since Wagner threw this last pitch, the Mets have had 14 ninth inning save opportunities and have converted 11 of them for a ratio of 78.6 %, which is 0.8% worse than Wagner. Luis Ayala has converted the most (saving 5 of 6 – 83%) and has become the unofficial “9th inning guy.” He will likely (and should) be the defacto closer for the rest of the season. Two of the three blown saves were during the pre-Ayala period, when the team went through a closer by committee routine.

The first game Ayala saved came during a pitching duel between Johan Santana and Houston’s Roy Oswalt.

Eerily similar pitching circumstances during the changing of the guard.

Personally, I believe that closers are an overrated group of pitchers, those which usually only get three outs (or less); having as much as a 3 run lead while getting those three outs. Closers have come in all shapes and sizes from hard throwers like Tom Henke, Troy Percival, Billy Wagner  and Lee Smith to the pinpoint control artists of Dennis Eckersley and Mariano Rivera to changeup specialists in John Franco, Doug Jones and Trevor Hoffman.

Since closers come in all shapes and sizes, then any pitcher can be a closer – at least those pitchers who are given a good opportunity to close. Met fans remember when Adam Wainwright, a starting pitcher his entire pro career, became the St. Louis Cardinals closer in the 2006 playoffs and converted the save in Games 5 & 7 of the NLCS.

Wagner being out for the balance of this season is being reported as a big blow for the playoff chances of the New York Mets.

I disagree.

The Mets are 22-11 since that August 2nd game. They have heard “will he or won’t he” be back this season about Wagner for over a month, but the Mets have continued to win games in every fashion. The offense has built big leads, they have come back late and they have won games in the middle innings where a relief pitcher has received the win. In all their wins since, the one common denominator has been the Mets bullpen closing out the game in an equal percentage as Billy Wagner once did.

And Luis Ayala (the guy who is “not supposed” to be doing this) has literally excelled during his stint as Mets closer, converting a higher percentage of save opportunities than did his $10 million predecessor - and during higher pressure situations of a playoff race.

The Mets will be fine this balance of this season without Billy Wagner in his 9th inning closer role. Thus far, they have a good start.