I agree with the risk. I think the traditional candidates (Hawkins, Brocail, Geary) would be disastrous, but this is where creativity comes into play. What about Paulino? What about Nieve? I wonder how Sampson would do. Yes, he has a low K rate, but he might have the makeup to do it. This is a risk/reward situation. I think if we go forward with Valverde as the closer (and signing one FA pitcher) we go back into a scenario where we have to pull a rabbit from a hat. Of course, the alternative is for Drayton to spend 20% more like he did in 2001, 2003, and 2006. The problem is that that 20% might be eaten up by bringing most of the folks back into the fold. In other words, to get off the hamster wheel, Drayton will have to increase payroll by an unheard of percentage for him or we have to be creative.

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