Last year the Oakland Athletics bullpen ranked in the top 10 in terms of ERA and FIP. More advanced metrics didn’t find as much favor with their body of work, as the A’s pen ranked middle of the road in terms of SIERA and xFIP. Given the park they call home, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the A’s relievers posted the second best HR/FB rate, coming in second to the Mariners. Being satisfied with the status quo usually isn’t Billy Beane’s style, and this offseason he moved around plenty of parts. There are some new faces to don the white cleats as well as some returning contributors, but the key is this team has fantasy relevant talent in this pen outside of the closer.

The closer
Jim Johnson

Johnson may be one of the new guys, but his job is secure as the club’s closer. His strong ground ball rate helps make up for his lack of swing-and-miss stuff and it is impossible to argue his recent work. Over the past two years Johnson leads baseball with 86 shutdowns against 15 meltdowns. For context, Aroldis Chapman has 80 SD and 14 MD and Craig Kimbrel has posted a 76:9 ratio. Johnson is a solid bet to gain saves and good ratios even if he lacks in the strikeout department.
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Even if you haven’t been playing in leagues that value holds, it is hard to forgive for missing Ryan Cook’s past two seasons. Since the start of 2012 season, Cook has accumulated a 2.30/2.82/3.59 ERA/FIP/xFIP. His 3.14 SIERA for the past two seasons is just as impressive. Saves or not, those peripherals plus his 25.3% strikeout rate equates to a strong fantasy bullpen member.

Despite the fact that Cook ranked outside the top 50 of Zach Sanders’ 2013 End of Season Relief Pitcher Rankings, Cook has several positives going for him when looking ahead to this season. Last year his average fastball of 95 mph rated as the 24th fastest among qualified relievers. He is primarily a fastball/slider guy, though he will mix in the occasional change-up and sinker. As per BrooksBaseball.net, a table showing Cook’s pitch selection for all of last season can be found below.
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On top of sharing the present author’s nationality, Hyun-Jin Ryu is noteworthy for his strong rookie season. After posting seven spectacular seasons in the Korean Baseball Organization, Ryu was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers in early December of last year. As the first South Korean player to be posted, some wondered how much the difference in competitive talent would hurt Ryu. One season doesn’t make a career, however it seems as though Ryu is the real deal.
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No, Alex Cobb was never involved in a chemical spill, doused in a secret formula and thus given special powers, however that doesn’t stop him from being just as entertaining to watch as an old school Nickelodeon show.

As per Zach Sanders’ end of season rankings, Cobb finished just outside the top 30 for starting pitchers, coming in at number 32. If rate stats alone awarded position, Cobb certainly would have finished higher. A come-back line drive and subsequent concussion forced him to miss two months of the season and limited him to a mere 143.1 innings. Even in a shortened season, Cobb showed tremendous talent and fantasy value.

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The 2013 season was a season unlike anything we’ve seen from Coco Crisp. Rather than accrue the majority of his value via his steals, his stolen base numbers were cut nearly in half from his 39 bags in 2012 to just 21 this season. This year Crisp launched a career high 22 home runs, including his 100th career home run (where the present author can be seen celebrating at the 0:38 mark and again at 0:52. And yes, that is a Kurt Suzuki shirsey).

                 
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At this point, the reader should not be surprised that I claimed Neil Walker. I’ve often touched on him in the Roto Riteups — no really, I have a bit of a man-crush on him — and so it was only fitting I tackle his end of season numbers. Before we dive too deep into the stats, here are my official top 3 Walker Power Rankings, in order:

3. Walker, Texas Ranger
2. Neil Walker
1. AT-AT Walker
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Okay, so maybe Moss doesn’t only grow on the north side of things. That is what I get for learning my outdoors lessons from Hey Arnold! and never being a Boy Scout. Nature references aside, Brandon Moss has put up big numbers for the Oakland A’s and fantasy owners for two straight years. After bouncing around with the Red Sox, Pirates, and Phillies, Moss has finally found a home in Oakland as their primary first baseman.
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When people much smarter than myself, e.g. Jeff Zimmerman, get to be self deprecating over going 1-for-10, what does that make me? Time to see how well poorly I did. As a refresher, here are my 10 Bold Predictions from the preseason. We’ll pretend this is a double-header and I received 10 plate appearances, one for each prediction.

1. Paul Goldschmidt will go 30-20 while being the most valuable first baseman in 5×5
Close, but no cigar. No doubt Goldy posted an excellent season, but 36 home runs and 15 steals still isn’t quite 30-20. Given that Chris Davis out-performed Goldschmidt as the best first baseman, I can’t even call this half a point. We’re 0-1 thus far with a strikeout looking.
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Fifteen years ago today Jay-Z released the album Vol 2…Hard Knock Life. The title track (warning: language) rates among the top 50 most played songs on the present author’s iTunes. Many of you will have a fantasy titled sewn up or stolen from your grasp today, so feel free to gloat and/or vent in the comment section. Today is going to be a day of hard knocks for some of us.

On today’s agenda:
1. Carlos Gomez does it all
2. Tanner Roark will start today
3. A 30-home run season for Brandon Moss
4. Josh Reddick’s hot September
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Nine years ago today Talib Kweli’s The Beautiful Struggled dropped. The track Around My Way is still one of the present author’s favorites.

On today’s agenda:
1. Miguel Cabrera to sit tomorrow
2. Hello again, Jhonny Peralta
3. A new bullpen arm in Cleveland
4. The Sunday starter for the Washington Nationals is…
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