Posted by Craig Brown on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 4:21 pm

I was reading my daily email from Lee Sinins (who provides an excellent daily recap, by the way) and came across this tidbit:

2) Free agent P Joe Borowski retired.

Has there ever been a more unlikely ninth inning pitcher?

He took a circuitous route from high school pitcher to major league closer. Borowski was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 32nd round of the 1989 draft. He played for two seasons in the lower minors for the Sox before he was traded for Pete Rose. No, not that Pete Rose. The other one. The one with only two career hits.

Borowski finally broke into the big leagues in 1995 with the Orioles and was dealt to the Atlanta Braves prior to the 1996 season. He yo-yo’ed between the minors and the majors the next few seasons before playing 2000 in the Northern Independent League and the Mexican League.

He caught the eye of the Chicago Cubs and spent the 2001 season in Triple-A Iowa. There, he bounced between the rotation and the bullpen, throwing 110 innings with 131 strikeouts and a stellar 2.62 ERA. The front office at Wrigley took notice and kept him with the team when they opened the 2002 season. The ’02 and ’03 season’s were the best of his career.

2002: 95.2 IP, 9.1 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 1.18 WHIP, 2.73 ERA
2003: 68.1 IP, 8.7 K/9, 2.5 BB/9, 1.05 WHIP, 2.63 ERA

He was in middle relief in ‘02 and then the Cubs shifted him to the closer role in ‘03. Both years were outstanding.

Then in 2004, it all went haywire. He tried to pitch through a rotator cuff injury, but a walk rate of 6 BB/9 underlined just how serious the problem was. He returned to the Cubs in 2005 and threw just 11 innings and allowed 12 hits and just one walk, yet he posted a 6.55 ERA. How, exactly did that happen? Well, five of his 12 hits were home runs.

Just like Ponce de Leon allegedly looked to Florida for the fountain of youth, Borowski seemed to have something similar in Miami. In his one season with the Marlins in 2006, he appeared in 72 games and saved 36 of them with an ERA of 3.75 and a strikeout rate of 8.27 K/9. His walk rate, at 4.3 BB/9, was still far too high which was should have been a warning sign when the Indians signed him to a one-year, $4.25 million deal with a team option for 2008.

His first year in Cleveland as their ninth inning pitcher was interesting to say the least. In the history of the game, only two players have saved more than 40 games in a season with an ERA greater than 4.50. Borowski was the first to accomplish this dubious double by saving 45 games in 2007 while posting a 5.07 ERA for Cleveland. (Brian Wilson saved 41 with a 4.62 ERA last summer for the Giants.) He blew eight saves for the Indians that summer. Cleveland rallied and won four of those games. Not counted in Borowski’s blown save tally from that season was a nightmare outing in New York where he surrendered six runs in the ninth inning on April 19. It’s not counted because he entered the game with a four run lead, so it wasn’t a save situation. In one season, Borowski demonstrated the fallacy of the save. As a stat, it’s fatally flawed. He allowed 39 runs in 65 innings while walking 17. Opponents hit .294 against him (during his best years, he limited hitters to an average around .230) and his home run rate jumped to 1.23 HR/9. The warning signs couldn’t have been clearer. “But he saved 45 games! He led the league!”

The Indians, desperate for bullpen help and ignoring everything but the saves, decided to exercise their option. It was a disaster. Borowski landed on the DL in April with a strained triceps and was never close to being effective. After posting a 7.56 ERA and four blown saves in 18 appearances, Cleveland cut him loose in July. His final appearance was a blown save in the 10th inning of a game against the White Sox. Charged with protecting a 2-1 lead, he got the first two outs before Alexi Ramirez homered. A single, a steal and an Orlando Cabrera single later and Borowski was tagged with his final blown save of his career.

It’s possible he will be remembered for the final two years of his career. But that wouldn’t be fair considering he did put together three fine years in the back of the bullpen at various points in his career. It was a long journey from the 32nd round of the amateur draft to a guy collecting saves at the back of the major league bullpen.

Joe Borowski was the unlikely closer.