It's time to get over the bias against short relievers

	Lee Smith was more of a workhorse than most of today's top closers. Walter Iooss Jr./SI
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Relievers made a killing in the free-agent market this winter and now, for the first time, a pitcher who never made a major-league start has been elected into the Hall of Fame. And this same ballot that brings in Bruce Sutter also puts fellow closer Goose Gossage (64.6 percent of the vote, up 15 percent from last year) squarely in the on-deck circle for immortality.

Slowly, relievers are getting their proper due. But old biases die hard. To wit:

• All-time saves leader Lee Smith has been categorized unfairly as a compiler, but he tossed at least 80 innings in eight of his 18 seasons, including three of more than 100 innings. That's yeoman's work compared to today's 60-inning wonders. (Cough, cough, Trevor Hoffman ... Troy Percival ... cough.) Smith garnered only 45 percent of the vote, his highest showing in four years on the ballot.

• John Wetteland, arguably one of the 10 best closers of all time, received a meager four votes (0.8 percent). That's one fewer than outmachine Ozzie Guillen (.287 career OBP) and happy feet Hal Morris.

There is an antiquated notion still carried by media and fans alike that relievers are nothing but failed starters. It's a notion that Sutter, for one, doesn't care for much.

"That may have been true in the '50s," Sutter said shortly after donning a Hall of Fame jersey and cap in New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel on Wednesday. "But if I'm playing against the Yankees and they say, 'You can take one guy off their team so he can't play against you,' well, then, it's going to be Mariano Rivera who won't play."

How do you spell relief? C-A-S-H

Bullpens used to be baseball's version of the offensive line -- throw a bunch of guys together at the last minute and hope it works. Not anymore. Teams have shown this winter they are willing to pay through the nose if it means bringing a degree of certainty to an otherwise volatile position.

The hefty contracts doled out to big-name closers B.J. Ryan (Blue Jays, five years, $47 million) and Billy Wagner (Mets, four years, $43 million) are well-chronicled though not unprecedented for elite closers. Remember Mark Davis' boondoggle (four years, $13 million) with the Royals in 1989? "When I signed with Atlanta [for six years, $10 million]," Sutter said, "a lot of people said I was way overpaid too."

But this winter the lower-tier firemen hit the jackpot too. Here are the relievers who received multi-year deals worth at least $10 million this offseason, and not all of them are slated for the closer role:

• Tom Gordon, Phillies, three years, $18 million.
• Kyle Farnsworth, Yankees, three years, $17 million.
• Braden Looper, Cardinals, three years, $13.5 million.
• Trevor Hoffman, Padres, two years, $13.5 million.
• Bobby Howry, Cubs, three years, $12 million.*
• Todd Jones, Tigers, two years, $11 million.
• Scott Eyre, Cubs, three years, $11 million.*
* Will be setup men with new teams.

Ironically, the same stratified bullpen paradigm that is making these men rich is what will help teams replace expensive relievers with youngsters already groomed for the role of short relief. College and high school teams have been cultivating their own uber-closers, and the effect is already being felt in the major leagues in the form of Oakland's Huston Street, Washington's Chad Cordero and Boston's Jon Papelbon, who were drafted as closers. (Look out for Yankees prospect J. Brent Cox sometime this season.)