Henke was the most consistent closer of his day.  Eckersley might have had a couple of flashier seasons, but year in and year out, the Terminator slammed the door shut on dozens of ninth-inning comebacks.  Reliable and unflappable.  He was Clint Eastwood from those great Spaghetti Westerns - he stared you down with an eerie calm, and he fired bullets with deadly accuracy.  Give Henke a lead, and the game was over.  The only other closer I would say that about is Mariano Rivera, and if Henke had been the Yankees' closer for fifteen years, they'd be framing that plaque in Cooperstown already.

The Terminator.

With the combo of Ward in the 8th and Henke in the 9th, the games are 7 innings long.  It's a huge advantage.

I'd give it to Henke for overall career.  But I'd have to go for 1993 Duane Ward if we get to narrow down to "in his prime".  No Blue Jay closer has been better than Ward in '93.

BJ Ryan still needs to close out games in a pennant race before we can truly measure him against the other two.

I was a little surprised to see that the best season of Henke, Ward and Ryan belonged to Ryan this season.

I had also forgotten that Ward pitched so much - 5 straight years over 100 innings, averaging over 110 innings.

Henke.

Possibly I'm jaded BUT he was our first GREAT closer. A true lights out. We NEEDED him so badly and we loved him. Then when Ward came, WOW! I used to hope the starter would get out of the game because to watch Ward in the eighth then Henke in the nineth was a thing of beauty. My gosh they were great.

I picked Henke but I could just as easily have picked Ward or Ryan; there's not a lot to choose between them at their best. Koch... we tend to forget how good he was when he was at his best, but he wouldn't be a terrible choice.