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One of the ways a closer can lose his job is to not get hitters out from both sides of the plate. If a right-handed closer is only able to get RHH out consistently, teams will begin to stack the line-up with as many LHH as possible. Here is an in depth look at closer handedness splits.

I got the list of current closers from MLB Depth Charts a couple of days ago. Currently, several teams have shaky situations at closer, so this list will likely change before the beginning of Spring Training. I will try to give an update on it with the changes later.

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Trading highly-touted top prospects is a dangerous game for GMs, even if the return is proven player, because the trade seldom ends up being a fair one. Either the prospect pans out and the receiving team now has a star under team control for the better part of the next decade, or the prospect doesn’t pan out and the sending team has managed to sell a player at the pinnacle of his theoretical value, a point he will never reach in reality, and gotten a major league star for as their prize. Read the rest of this entry »

In the comments to my keeper round-up last week, reader/commenter LuckyStrikes wrote:

I’d like to see an Ottoneu article highlighting the top 10 players whose value far exceeded their salary from 2011 and those players primed to do so in 2012.

Well, I can’t quite do that, but I am going to try to give you something (sort of) close (I think). I’ve taken the keeper data for points leagues and the 2011 point totals for each player to calculate the points/dollar for the average price at which each player was kept, and I am going to take a look at the best and worst values out there.

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After trying and failing to sign Carlos Pena earlier this offseason, the Indians satisfied their first base needs with another former Tampa Bay Ray last week: Casey Kotchman. They inked him to a one-year contract worth $3 million with a bunch of incentives, pushing Matt LaPorta aside for the time being.

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Continuing with our look at the RotoGraphs Reader Mock Draft, here’s a glance at Rounds 17-20.  Since risk is much less of a concern this far down in the draft, I’ll just highlight my favorite pick in the round followed up with some thoughts on some of the other selections. Read the rest of this entry »

The RotoGraphs reader mock draft analysis never ends. See what happens when you participate in a draft we help facilitate? You get articles written about you all week! Today I will look at all the American League starting pitchers drafted and compare each with their current average draft position (ADP).

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The scouting reports on Danny Valencia stayed pretty consistent from when he was drafted in 2006 to when he made his major league debut in the middle of the 2010 season: He does most things well enough, but without a standout tool, he’s probably more of an organizational piece than a potential star. When he came up in early June of 2010, he threw aside those labels, played strong defense, and hit pretty much everything that got close, putting up a .311/.351/.448 line with 7 HR in 85 games. He finished third in the Rookie of the Year voting and looked primed for a solid run as the Twins’ third baseman of choice for the foreseeable future. His BABIP was a little on the high side, but it isn’t as though his .345 mark was so inflated that his whole line was a lie. His BABIP did regress in 2011, but it did so as part of a sophomore slump so deep that it nearly exhausts the term, and that’s what has earned him a spot in this series. Read the rest of this entry »

Only five relievers have a higher WAR than Rafael Betancourt since 2009, Matt Thornton, Mariano Rivera, Jonathan Papelbon, Brian Wilson, and Sean Marshall. Despite ranking up there with the best relievers in the league over that time period, Betancourt, who will close for the Rockies this season, has been receiving little love in mock drafts this year.

While his ERA of 3.09 since ’09 is not spectacular, he does have two seasons with an ERA under 2.90 in three years. He has also tallied 223 strikeouts in 180.2 innings, or 11.11 strikeouts per nine. Of relievers expected to close next season, only Carlos Marmol has a higher strikeout percentage than Betancourt’s 31.3% rate. Only Thornton has a lower xFIP of expected closers, and Addison Reed may end up being the man in the ninth for the White Sox. Betancourt’s 10.13 strikeout-to-walk ratio over the past two years of is double that of all but two pitchers’, Edward Mujica at 6.75 and Mariano Rivera at 5.53.

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Each year, there’s always one pick in the draft that always seems to cause the biggest stir amongst the fantasy community and leads to the greatest number of emails seeking added opinions.  It used to be closer to the tail end of the first round when an owner was deciding between whichever offensive treat was left or the number one overall starting pitcher.  This year, I’ve received a number of emails from people with the 4th pick.  People with the 8th and 9th picks are rolling their eyes right now, but truly, the 4th pick can cause quite the conundrum.

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