Fantasy Baseball: Closers

Due to either struggles or injuries, the following closers may be available in your leagues, they should turn it around soon so try picking them up.

Kerry Wood-CLE
He's been very un-Kerry Wood like this season, but that could just be because he is in a new league. He is far too talented to continue to struggle like this.

Jose Valverde-HOU
Valverde hasn't been great this year, and he is currently on the DL, but it won't surprise me if he ends the season with 30+ saves.

Brian Fuentes-LAA
Fuentes is in a similar boat to Kerry Wood, struggles mainly due to being in a new league. He does already have 8 saves so it may be harder to pry him away, but if you can, you could be rewarded with 50 or so saves seeing how the Angels like to use their closers.

Brad Lidge-PHI
When things are going bad for Brad as they are now, its beyond ugly, but when he is on, he's one of the games best. I think he will turn this around shortly and be back to being dominant.

Fantasy Baseball Tip

I want you to think back on your last fantasy baseball draft, and think about when you selected your first and second relief pitchers. Hopefully, you didn't draft them earlier than the 12th round, and if you did, hopefully you've learned your lesson. If you haven't, I'm here to teach you a little something about the art of the fantasy closer pickup.

Out of the 52 Major Leaguers who have a save to their name, guess how many have over 15 innings pitched? The answer is, are you ready? One. One pitcher, Roman Troncoso. The majority of the players remaining have somewhere between 7 and 11 innings pitched. If you're in a head-to-head league, thats bad, but in a rotisserie league, that can be terrifying. A lot of people excuse there nonsensical drafting of a closer so earlier by saying it will greatly help their K's, WHIP, and ERA. In reality though, it won't. If a player will only get you 50 to 80 innings, the percentage of his innings to the whole won't make a signifigant difference, so neither will any of his other stats (aside from saves of course). You just shouldn't draft a player so earlier if he will only truly benefit you in 1 category and wont harm (or really help) you at all in the others. Instead, get players that can help you in 3 of 5 batting categories or piching categories.

Another reason to not draft a pitcher high is because you can always always ALWAYS find saves later, whether that later is a few rounds later in the draft, via free agency, or both. Example? The player with the most saves, Heath Bell (8 saves, 0.00 ERA, 9 Ks), went undrafted in several leagues and always went very late in the others. Same goes for Frank Francisco (7 saves, 0.00 ERA, 10 Ks) and Chad Qualls (6 saves, 1.80 ERA, 14 Ks). Compare that to players who went between 10 and 18 rounds before them like Jonathan Papelbon (6 saves, 1.74 ERA, 10 Ks), Kerry Wood (5 saves, 7.20 ERA, 16 Ks), and Brad Lidge (4 saves, 6.52 ERA, 12 Ks), and you'll find that there really is no advantage to taking closers earlier rather than later.

Closer watch

A handful of teams, whether the reason is injury or ineffectiveness, now have a different closer ending games for them. You should consider picking these players up and squeeze every save and strikeout you can out of them.

• Scott Downs-Replacing the injured BJ Ryan.
• Ryan Franklin-The main St. Louis closer, hasn't given up a run in 7 innings .
  
• Brad Zeigler-Teammate and would-be save stealer Joey Devine is out for the year.
• Todd Coffey-The interim closer til Hoffman gets back (which should be a week or so). still, could net you a save or two in the mean time.
• Rafael Soriano-Has been the Braves most effective closer thus far.
• Carlos Marmol-Sweet Lou likes him more in the 8th, but he will get a few spot saves every now and then and will help you greatly in Ks.
  
• Manny Corpas-Took over for Huston Street, hasn't been effective yet though.

Here are some other players who aren't closers yet, but who you should keep a serious eye on in case something happens.

• Chris Perez-Having some control issues, but he's the most talented reliever the Cardinals have.
  
• Dan Wheeler- Troy Percival isn't exactly the poster boy of durability. When he breaks down, Wheeler will be next in line for saves.
• Jason Grili- Newly appointed closer Manny Corpas has already struggled and Grili is posting a 1.29 ERA.
• Chris Ray-I know he's not doing well, but neither is George Sherril.
  
• Tommy Hunter-Could pull an Adam Wainwright and close for the Braves down the stretch (if they're in contention)