Archive for Closers

Relief pitchers who have starting pitcher qualifications are a valuable resource in leagues who have both starting pitcher (SP) and relief pitcher (RP) slots and daily moves. If a team can’t use all their starting pitcher slots on a particular day, a good SP qualified reliever can be used to help with rate stats and maybe holds. These type of pitchers have become so useful, they were effectively outlawed in Ottoneu because of a rules change (only pitchers starting can get stats for SP slots and non-starters can only get stats on the RP slots). Today I am going to look at few useful candidates to use with this strategy.

Truthfully, the list of ideal candidates are slim this year. I far as I could tell, no SP qualified pitcher is currently a full time closer or set up man. A few fall into the category of middle relief, but most are long relievers. Here is a quick look at some of the better option in 2013.

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Last week I took a look at three power arm prospects who could be handling the 9th inning soon for their major league teams. In that article I profiled Detroit’s Bruce Rondon, Toronto’s Marcus Stroman and Seattle’s Carter Capps. Today I thought I’d continue with that theme by looking at a few more players with similar potential who are the property of National League organizations.

Heath Hembree, RHP, San Francisco Giants

Hembree was a 5th round pick in 2010 out of the College of Charleston – a very underrated baseball school. The South Carolina institution has had three or more players drafted every year since 2005. The school hasn’t had a player taken in the 1st round, but they have had three 2nd rounders and also saw current Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner taken in the 3rd round. Hembree was the Closer for a Cougars team that made a run to the NCAA Regional Finals his draft year. A torn right meniscus in his knee and irregular usage somewhat limited his innings in college, but he generated a lot of buzz leading up to the draft. After being picked by the Giants the fireballer then struck out 22 batters in his 11 inning short season pro debut that year. He’s largely continued that success over the last couple seasons.

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• It wasn’t a save situation but Joaquin Benoit entered the game in the ninth today, giving up two hits and one run via a Colby Rasmus homer. The Tigers still haven’t officially announced a closer but it sure seems like the ninth inning, at least when not facing a tough lefty, belongs to Benoit. He hasn’t run away with the job only pitching to a 4.15/6.72/5.09 ERA/FIP/xFIP thus far but consider him the closer in Detroit until further notice.

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We are only in the second week of the season and already there is much to talk about at the Bullpen Report, all aboard the closer carousel of 2013!

• Aaron Crow received the save today for Kansas City but Royals manager Ned Yost insisted  that “Holland is our closer.” Greg Holland and Kelvin Herrera had pitched in the previous two games and Yost wanted to give them a day off. Ervin Santana did his part today to give the pen some rest, pitching eight innings before handing the game off to Crow in the ninth. Aaron Crow is a solid reliever  and any fantasy team looking to help their ratios or just particularly desperate for saves could look his way. His career 9.16 K/9 and 3.05 ERA will help but at the moment it’s still Holland’s job to lose.

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Fantasy Players spend a tremendous amount of time every season chasing Saves. Relief pitchers are for the most part inherently unreliable and unpredictable and there tends to be a tremendous amount of turnover at the position. So with so much unreliability among relievers, why bother investing in relief prospects? Well, there are some arms out there who are just so filthy they demand your attention. Sure, you can make do finding the next Casey Janssen and get a solid solution for a year or two… but there’s also something to be said for finding the next K-Rod before he explodes on to the scene. Here are three of my favorite prospects who could be racking up Saves in the near future.

Bruce Rondon, RHP, Detroit Tigers

You all know the score here. Rondon shouldn’t be a new name to any of you, but all the same you can’t do a relief pitcher prospect article and not mention him, can you? The young Venezuelan fireballer had a shot to run away with the 9th inning job in Detroit this Spring but command lapses and inconsistency have him back at Toledo to start the year. Rondon began 2012 in the Florida State League but dominated minor league hitters with an overpowering fastball that hits triple digits. Read the rest of this entry »

• I wasn’t able to write the Marlins Bullpen Depth Chart Discussion so I’ll use this space now to briefly discuss what’s going on in Miami’s bullpen. As you know, Heath Bell has been jettisoned to Arizona and Steve Cishek now has the closing gig on a full time basis without having to worry about the overpaid vet with “closer experience” lurking behind his shoulder. Cishek can get strikeouts (9.61 K/9 in 2012) but he struggles a bit with control (4.10 BB/9 in 2012) and has shown a pretty big platoon split with a career .240 wOBA against right-handed hitters but a .310 against left side. Still, he’s the Marlins man in the ninth and his job is secure to start the season.

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Hoping you all had a wonderful Opening Day. I’m not sure if we will see the closer type of carousel that we saw last year, but on the first day there was already some drama so here it goes: Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, I got outrageously bold with predictions for the league leaders in the five fantasy hitting categories. Today, I check in on the pitching side of the ledger with some equally crazy forecasts.

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In 2012, Aroldis Chapman threw 71.2 thrilling innings out of the bullpen for Cincinnati with 38 saves, an absurd 122 strike outs and a 1.51 ERA with an equally (and likely more) impressive 1.55 FIP. In 2013, or at least at this point in the middle of spring training, Aroldis is still slated to be in the Rotation for the Reds which certainly changes the bullpen landscape. Whether Aroldis stays in the rotation or ends up back in pen will largely depend on his early results, health, the effectiveness of the rest of the bullpen and Dusty Baker. I don’t think I’m the only baseball fan who drools at the thought of 200 innings from the Cuban Missile, so let’s hope he stays in the rotation while we talk about the Reds bullpen. 

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Last week was all about the consensus ranks. This week, you’ll see some tiered ranks as we also try to finish up the depth chart discussion. But before we move on too quickly, I thought it would be interesting and informative for me to pick out the players that I liked and disliked more than the other analysts involved in the consensus ranks. Hopefully I’ll have a short, concise reason for my rankings in each case. Hopefully.

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