When I think of the classic stoppers, I’m reminded of a time when closers were defined by their facial hair.   Mustaches or beards were either part of the intimidation process or clever tools used to distract hitters from the mission at hand.   Between Rollie Fingers’ ol' curly, Goose’s bushy handlebars, Eck’s fu Manchu, and Sutter’s lumberjack beard, hitters were scared to death when these guys took the mound. Heck, even Todd Worrell rode his "schoolboy" 'stache to the ’86 ROY award. Unfortunately, all we're left with today are a pudgy guy in goggles and a guy who does the River dance in his tighty-whities, but I digress.

With the first week and a half in the books, there are plenty of owners out there hitting the panic button. And much like their real-life counterparts, many owners are concerned with their closer situation. After a couple of weeks, it's still hard to tell if some of these guys are legit or if they're, well, posers. My advice? Take a deep breath, and wait things out at least a little while longer. To help you hang on, I’ll be watching countless hours of baseball each week, specifically save situations, grouping closers by my confidence level in them. You'll notice that there are plenty of guys who I'm "On Board" with after the first week. And really, it's too small a sample size at this point to start writing guys off. As the season plays out, however, you'll see closers moving down as the overall picture starts to clear up. Enough with the small talk, let’s dig in and analyze these guys after an up and down first week. 

(Stats as of April 8, 2008)