Don’t look now, but the Reds have a real, bonafide closer because they doled out a ton of cash to sign Francisco Cordero for a healthy $46 million over four years.  There’s even an option for 2012 that would make it a five year, $58 million deal.

That’s a ton of money for a guy who’s going to throw 65 innings but there’s little doubt that having a solid closer will go a long way towards appeasing the masses.  I don’t buy into the whole save/closer thing but Cordero does have some impressive numbers.  He has 528 career strikeouts in 506 innings and he’s given up just 36 homers in that time frame. 

One thing I like about Cordero is he’s good against both righties and lefties (at least he was in 2007).  His ground ball percentage wasn’t awesome in 2007 (41%) so you wonder if some of those fly balls he gave up will get out of the Great American Ball Park.  Still, it’s move in the right direction.  Heck, any quality pitcher we scoop up at this point is pushing the team in the right direction.

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