From now until the trade deadline at the month’s end, I will be publishing a weekly post on overall closer rankings. The focus is not the best closers, but the combination of talent, opportunity, the chance of being traded, other bullpen arms, and mainly accumulating Saves. These rankings could change on a dime but at least they provide some structure for speculating on Saves.

I find the rumor mill boring but usually where there is smoke, there is fire. For that reason, I’m basing the chances of being traded on MLBTraderumors and The Athletic’s most likely traded lists. If they are wrong, I’m wrong.
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The following players were dropped in 10 or more of the 38 NFBC Main Event leagues.

Injury

• Jordan Hicks (31): Tommy John surgery sucks.
• Willians Astudillo (17): It’s tough for teams to roster hurt catchers with near replacement level talent.
• Brendan Rodgers (16): With Trevor Story returning from the IL, Rodgers does not have a job even if healthy.
• Alex Reyes (12): He’s back on the shelf with a pectoral injury.
• Anthony Swarzak (11): He was in Atlanta’s closer mix but an inflamed shoulder put him on the IL.
• Luis Severino (10): What a cluster f___. I can’t believe the Yankees, who have more money than they know what to do with, didn’t have him get an MRI. Now, the earliest Severino will return in late August.
• Gio Gonzalez (10): On the IL with an arm injury. Seems vague and the Nats may be using the All-Star break to get him some rest.

Demotion

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It’s closer’s week. Several closers are hurt and/or struggling. Also, the trade deadline is approaching, so some more jobs will open up.

The projection guidelines:

• The ownership rates are from CBS since they have some quickdraw waiver wire leagues where players can be picked up at any time.
• The FAAB estimates are based on the 2018 15-team mixed NFBC leagues which used a $1000 FAAB budget. Owners are going to need to convert these values to their own league.
• The ownership values were taken from Saturday and lots can happen in between when they publish and FAAB bids run.
• Only players owned in 50% or fewer of CBS leagues are examined.

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Angels

• The lineup is set with Justin Upton (.281/.378/.594) batting in the middle of the lineup and starting seven straight games in left field.
• It’ll be interesting to see how the middle infield playing time shakes out when Andrelton Simmons returns from the IL. Luis Rengifo (.297/.381/.541) has heated up over the past two weeks, while Tommy La Stella has cooled down (.256/.273/.349) over the same time frame.

Astros

• They’ve used the same lineup in the two games since George Springer’s return from the IL.
• Yordan Alvarez hit fifth but he may be heading to the IL and Jake Marisnick will likely take his lineup spot as long as Kyle Tucker remains in the minors.

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In Tout Wars this season, I’ve run Jose Ramirez out every week. I have no issues sitting a struggling star but in Ramirez’s case, I’m basically running out Billy Hamilton which helps with steals.

One of the following stat lines in for Billy Hamilton and the other for Jose Ramirez

A. .227/.302/.280 with 16 SB
B. .211/.299/.320 with 18 SB

Which one is Ramirez?

— Jeff Zimmerman (@jeffwzimmerman) June 24, 2019

I’ve been waiting for a rebound but nothing so far. He’s hit .286/.310/.500 this past week but it’s just acceptable. It’s not enough to offset the horrible weeks. The numbers are lower than his preseason projections. Today, I want to determine if any hope exists for an offensive rebound. How often has a hitter been projected to hit as well as Ramirez and then struggled so bad and did he rebound? It doesn’t look good.

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One trend I’ve noticed is some owners are starting to pack it in or succumbing to the grind. There is no reason to roster Montas with his suspension but he’s still on five rosters. Since more players are available on the waiver wire, teams down in the rankings can quickly make up ground.

The following players were dropped in more than 10 or more of the 38 NFBC Main Event leagues.

Demoted

• Leonys Martin (24): A .620 OPS. Anyone with an OPS under .650 is suspect for demotion.
• Kevin Cron (20): This demotion was a little weird since Cron was hitting good (.822 OPS). Maybe it points to the return of Jake Lamb off of the IL.
• Erick Fedde (12): 4.9 K/9 + 4.2 BB/9 = demotion
• Mike Foltynewicz (11): He’s got to work through several issues which have ballooned his ERA to 6.37.

Injured

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I thought it was going to be a slow week for bidding, but a few pitchers have seen their ownership jump quite a bit. Also, there is some movement with a couple of closers going down with injuries.

The projection guidelines:

• The ownership rates are from CBS since they have some quickdraw waiver wire leagues where players can be picked up at any time.
• The FAAB estimates are based on the 2018 15-team mixed NFBC leagues which used a $1000 FAAB budget. Owners are going to need to convert these values to their own league.
• The ownership values were taken from Saturday and lots can happen in between when they publish and FAAB bids run.
• Only players owned in 50% or fewer of CBS leagues are examined.
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Angels

• Justin Upton is back and has slotted in the cleanup spot. Normally, the cleanup spot has been reserved for Albert Pujols so some kinks need to still be worked out.
• Tommy La Stella’s spirit has returned to reclaim his body from Babe Ruth and has hit .200/.238/.425 over the past two weeks.
• Luis Rengifo (.649) will likely head to the minors once Andrelton Simmons returns from the IL. He’ll probably not be missed.
• I didn’t expect Shohei Ohtani to steal much to protect his elbow but he does have three steals in his last eight games.

Astros

• The lineup is in flux with Jose Altuve returning from the IL and the last three games being in an NL park with the pitcher batting.
• Altuve hit third in the lineup in his first game back.
• Tyler White has heated up ( .310/.474/.586) over the last two weeks. When Carlos Correa returns, it’ll be interesting to see if White (.695 OPS) or Yuli Gurriel (.593 OPS) will take over the first base duties.

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