Many fantasy baseball championships are won on draft day. Others, with shrewd moves throughout the season. And (probably) a smaller portion of owners are able to hoist a flag by smoothly navigating their league’s settings to identify certain loopholes they can use to their advantage.

In some league variations, owners are have a fixed number of starting and relief roster spots to fill each-and-every day, so identifying lesser-owned hurlers with dual eligibility could be more valuable than most imagine. With that said, here is a short list of arms that said owners could slot into either their starting or relief roster spots in an attempt to gain an advantage in whatever categories they need to do so as we make the turn for the homestretch.
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Rafael Betancourt entered tonight’s game in the bottom of the ninth frame with a 4-3 Rockies lead over the Phillies. The crafty veteran retired the first two batters he faced, but then allowed a two-out double to Jimmy Rollins followed by an RBI single off the bat of Michael Young. Immediately following Young’s at-bat, Betancourt signaled for the trainer and was pulled from the game with an apparent elbow injury. The trainer’s evaluation “suggested” a possible tear of the infamous ulnar collateral ligament, which could end his season if Tommy John surgery is indeed needed to repair the ligament. It appears as if Rex Brothers will land back in the closer’s role should in fact Betancourt’s season be over. Brothers is 11-of-12 in save opportunities this season with a 1.51 ERA (3.31 FIP), a 1.16 WHIP and a 25.9% K%. The southpaw is owned in just 44% of Yahoo! leagues as of this writing, but that number needs to increase exponentially by the time the sun rises tomorrow.
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The home stretch is here. For some owners looking to gain some ground in their roto leagues, it may be time to take on some risk for the potential reward. In head-to-head leagues the case may not be the same, unless of course, your primary holds guys have been lost in a bullpen shuffle somewhere.

At any rate, here are a few arms to consider adding if they’re available in your leagues.
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Sergio Romo needed just 11 pitches in the home half of the final frame to notch his 30th save of the twenty-thirteen campaign. Romo fanned one — giving the right-hander only three strikeouts in his last seven outings — and induced a couple of pop ups to finish off the Marlins, 6-4. The Giants’ closer continues to rack up saves while limiting free passes (4.4% BB%), but fantasy owners were likely hoping for a few more strikeouts from the 30-year-old this season. His whiff rate (26.2% K%) is down for the second consecutive year — Romo rocked a 40% K% in 48 frames in 2011 followed by a 29.3% K% in just over 55 innings in 2012 — partially because he’s missing fewer bats (13.3% SwStr%) over that same time frame and also the fact that opponents are making better contact on his offerings. Strikeouts or not, Romo continues to get those all important saves for his fantasy owners as we head down the home stretch.
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The Cuban Missile, Aroldis Chapman, surrendered one hit and whiffed two enroute to a 2-1 Reds victory over the Brewers on Thursday evening. Chapman is now 30-of-34 on the season with a 2.74 ERA (1.03 WHIP) and a 43% K%. He “somewhat” set the bar pretty high for himself back in 2012, so when I want to discuss how his K% is “down” to 43% from just over 44% last season or his BB% is up to 10.7% from 8.3% in ‘12 I feel like I’m just nitpicking. But the aforementioned is true and so is the fact that the velo on his slider is down a tick and his LD% is up to 25%. Ya whatever, he’s still recorded 30 saves for the second consecutive season and will likely eclipse the 100 strikeout mark again as well. He’s been a stud and will continue to be a stud for the foreseeable future, I’m 99% sure you didn’t need me to tell you that.
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Sorry so tardy with the bullpen report, the author was considerably under the weather last evening.

Here a are just a few notes from Saturday’s action out of the bullpen:

Rafael Betancourt is making “slow and steady progress” while recovering from an appendectomy last month. Hes tossed a few light bullpen sessions last week, so a simulated game on Monday appears to be the next course of action the veteran’s quest to return to the ninth-inning this season. Prior to the emergency procedure to remove his appendix, Betancourt notched 15 saves in 16 opportunities with a 3.16 ERA (1.21 WHIP) and a 22.2% K%. In his stead, Rex Brothers is 9-of-10 in save chances, owns a 1.52 ERA and is fanning 25% of the batters he faces. The Rockies have not mapped out a plan for their 38-year-old reliever past Monday’s potential simulated game, therefore, Brothers should continue to earn save opportunities for at least another week while Betancourt concludes his rehabilitation.

Addison Reed struggled a bit at the end of July, which Robin Ventura attributes to the right-hander being rusty from a lack of appearances, but appears to be back in the saddle for the time being. Since the former Aztec blew a save in Cleveland on the last day of July, Reed is 2-for-2 save opportunities while allowing just one earned run while posting a 2:1 K/BB. He’s now successfully closed out 28 games in 33 chances while posting a 3.61 ERA (2.59 FIP) and whiffing more than 25% of opposing hitters. A quick look at the velocity and usage on Reed’s offerings indicates his fastball appears to be down a tick from last season, but he’s not relying on that pitch as much as he used to. Reed is using his slider just over a third of the time and is throwing it harder than he has in each of the past two seasons. Opponents are slugging .239 against Reed’s fourseamer as opposed to .414 versus his slider.

Joe Nathan picked up his 332nd career save and 34th of the twenty-thirteen campaign in a 5-4 victory over the Astros in Houston last night. Nathan issued a walk, but escaped the ninth-inning unscathed to earn the handshake. This was Nathan’s third consecutive save since blowing just his second save of the year against the Yankees on July 23rd. The veteran right-hander owns a 1.54 ERA (0.90 WHIP) to go along with his 34 saves on the season and should be considered a top five-ish closing option from here on out.

Quick Hitters: LaTroy Hawkins (3), Koji Uehara (12), Casey Janssen (21), Huston Street (22), Steve Cishek (24), Kevin Gregg (25), Sergio Romo (28) and Rafael Soriano (29) each picked up saves on Saturday night. Hawkins is still available in 83% of Y! leagues for those hunting for late-season saves. David Hernandez of the Diamondbacks was optioned to the Triple-A Reno Aces after last evening’s outing. He’s struggled mightily through the early summer, but will look to get his confidence back on the farm, as his stuff doesn’t appear to be the primary concern at the moment.

Closer Grid:

[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]

It’s been a pretty slow day in bullpen country, so here is what I was able to scrape together for tonight:

In today’s “Scheming For Relief” column that I use to rant about middle relievers for holds leagues, LaTroy Hawkins earned a slot in the third tier based on his past thirty days of performance. In the past thirty day prior to this evening’s outing, Hawkins owned a 2.45 ERA, 1.00 WHIP with seven holds and one save in 12 trips to the bump. He seemed like a solid option to continue gathering holds despite the awful strikeout rate (9.3% K%) over the last month. But with Bobby Parnell on the disabled list, the Mets signaled for the gritty veteran to do away with the Rockies in the top half of the ninth-inning with another save chance on the line. Hawkins needed just 11 pitches to induce a fly out and two ground outs to earn his second save in four chances this season. If you’re chasing saves to finish out the season, you may as well add “old man river” to your squad to see if you can scrape together a few more.
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The trade deadline, trips to the disabled list and suspensions significantly altered bullpens across the league in the last thirty days. Subsequently, fantasy baseballers in holds leagues were likely scrambling to find the “next man in” to continue their quest for the playoffs as each respective domino fell. Still looking to make a late-season surge? Here’s a quick look at my top sixty middle relievers over the past month.
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–Steve Cishek surrendered a leadoff single, but an induced groundout sandwiched between two strikeouts got him out of the ninth-inning unscathed enroute to his 23rd save. The lanky right-hander is now 23-of-25 on the season — his last blown save coming on June 4th against the Phillies — and sports a 3.08 ERA (2.94 FIP) and a 1.15 WHIP. As we look further into (some of) Cishek’s numbers entering tonight, it seems as if he’s pretty close to being the same pitcher he’s been since entering the league. His velocity appears to be holding steady on each of his offerings, both his swinging strike rate (9.2%) and whiff rate (23.9%) are right inline with his career numbers and his batted ball profile hasn’t changed all that much.
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-Apparently, Joe Nathan is the newest closer on the trade market. It’s being reported that the Rangers have had “internal discussions” about dealing from an area of surplus to possibly increase the supply of relievers available to other organizations in order to acquire the offensive spark they covet. If by chance the Rangers moved their ninth-inning man to a team like the Tigers, Red Sox or Dodgers, Texas could slide former closer Joakim Soria, Alexi Ogando or even Neftali Feliz into that role. Nelson Cruz’s association with the Biogeneisis scandal could have accelerated this process as well.
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