Baseball's winter meetings are proving to be rather interesting, with the Bucs making a couple of moves. I'm going to wait until the meetings end and the dust settles before I weigh in on those moves, but the write-up of the Mark Redman deal by DK from this morning's PPG has compelled me to make with the clicky clicky.

According to the article, Dave Littlefield, said his next target is to find a reliever with major league experience closing out games. For God's sake, WHY?! Consider the fact that none of these "proven" closers are really that proven. Let's face facts. Braden Looper, Roberto Hernandez and Antonio Alfonseca are not really going to put fear in the heart of too many opposing teams. Why throw money at mediocrity? Especially when the team has a number of holes to fill?

Unless you have a stud closer (of which, there are very few), it just doesn't make sense to go after these types of guys. If you want a mediocre closer, why not just create one by finding a guy on the scrap heap? Sound far-fetched? It's not, really. The Brewers have displayed a talent for doing just this the last couple of years. First, they come up with Dan Kolb. Then, after shipping him out (and bringing in value for a guy that previously had none), they come up with Derrick Turnbow. Heck, even the world champion Chicago White Sox came up with Bobby Jenks, who had never closed before. These types of experiments are not always successful, but the investment is negligible.

In recent interviews, Littlefield has indicated that Mike Gonzalez and Salomon Torres will get looks at the closer role. Gonzalez has been the organization's heir apparent for the role for the last several years. I think Ian Snell also could excel in the role. These guys should have a chance to win the role.

I say, invite some intriguing guys to camp, and throw the role up for grabs. The closer role isn't the missing ingredient that's keeping this team from contending. Come on, let's get creative here. Don't throw some of the organization's limited resources at players with limited value.