The closer is special mentality position in baseball. It's like 5% pitching, 70% issuing heart attacks to fans, and 25% showmanship. Among all the available trade options, internal promotions, and free agent options, only one man truly sticks out. And it's this guy.

via gifs.gifbin.com

What makes him special you may ask? It's his ability to mechanically do all three of these at the same time.

• Look at that leg kick. It's like up to the chest, off to the side and then I'm pretty sure he wraps his ankle around his neck.. That's gotta really create a lot of positive momentum to put on the ball, I mean he's literally WINDING HIS BODY UP.
• The climax for this whole delivery is when he's air born. It's the ultimate deception! If a runner somehow avoids getting struck out by this guy, he's got no chance at stealing a base. The pitcher is in the air spinning around and you have no idea which direction he's going to land. This is the ultimate pitch windup/pick off move. Runners beware because not even Rickey Henderson could steal a base from this guy.
• Then he lands and he's like "Screw this kinetic chain hogwash, I'm chucking this son of a biscuit with my bicep." You don't really need any of that extra sciency magic when hitters and runners have no clue what is happening anymore. Why try when you can turn worlds upside down?
• Finally, he's a one pitch phenom and it's a special one. It's called a THROW, and yeah it's written in ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME. How do you hit a THROW? You don't. You just accept your fate and hope you've padded your stats enough while facing that novice, Justin Verlander.

Keep in mind, the dude is so confident he doesn't wear a glove. You just can't touch 'dis.

via awesomegifs.com

H/T to Fielder'sChoice for supplying the .gif that inspired this post.