There are tons of moving parts in the closer realm right now, with Brain Wilson being the latest reliever to succumb to injury. For the most part, relievers have not struggled too heavily with ineffectiveness. There are none that are currently on the hot seat to the extent that one blown save will have them removed from their role. With that said, there have been a few interesting trends that we have seen over the past few weeks.

Santiago Casilla

Casilla received the first save opportunity since Wilson’s injury, so he is obviously the guy to grab if he is somehow still available in your league. He is being grabbed left and right on ottoneu, as Chad Young pointed out. And Chris Cwik pointed out that he was likely the next in line, so hopefully you listened to Chris and grabbed Casilla before last night. He is a rather solid pitcher, despite having a so-so strikeout-to-walk ratio. He generates ground balls while not allowing home runs, so while he is not an ideal back-end reliever due to his low strikeout-to-walk ratio, he should remain effective enough to hold onto the role. He will not have an extremely long leash, but a few good performances should give him some breathing room.

Bryan Shaw

The Diamondbacks have been in a ton of save situations this season, and they have been forced to rest J.J. Putz during some of those opportunities. In his absence, Brian Shaw has received the chances, recording two saves in seven innings pitched. David Hernandez had pitched two consecutive days before his first opportunity, but in Shaw’s second chance Hernandez had only thrown one time in four days, so it was likely that he was available. Shaw entered in the eighth and finished the game off with 1.1 innings pitched and a strikeout while allowing no base runners. J.J. Putz has had a history with injuries, so if anything happens to Putz, it may be Shaw that gets the first chance at the closer gig. If you are looking to handcuff Putz, Shaw may have sneaked past Hernandez on the closer depth chart.

Juan Cruz

Cruz recorded a save last night for the Pirates. Joel Hanrahan has been considered day-to-day with a hamstring injury that he suffered during his save on Sunday. There is reason to worry about Hanrahan and the injury, but no reason to exactly panic quite yet. Cruz seems to be the next in line, and there is a good chance that Hanrahan gets traded mid-season. If you are looking to hold onto the Pirates saves throughout the season, grab Cruz now to ensure that you have Hanrahan’s handcuff. Things can obviously change before then, and Evan Meek is a candidate to close as well in the future, but for now it looks like the role will belong to Cruz if Hanrahan’s injury becomes more serious or if he eventually gets moved.

Before the season started, fellow writer Chad Young examined a few starter eligible relievers. He had some great recommendations like Alexi Ogando and Alfredo Aceves. Today, I am going to examine a few more SP qualified relievers that Chad did not look at in his article.

(Owned rates are ESPN and Yahoo)

Brett Myers (91%, 53%) – Myers looks to be the Cadillac of relievers that are starter qualified because he is the only one currently picking up saves. On a starter’s off day, Myers can just be plugged into the starter’s roster spot thereby giving a team an extra slot picking up saves. While Myers is not playing for a team that will rack up a ton of wins for him to save, they are still saves. If he is able to close for the entire season, his number of saves should be around 30.

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I’ve got two early-season waiver wire adds for you, one to help your outfield and one to help your bullpen…

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The San Francisco Giants aren’t picking up any good vibrations from Brian Wilson. Wilson complained of elbow pain this weekend, and will likely miss the remainder of the season. Between 2008 and 2011, Wilson saved 163 games for the Giants, emerging as one of the best closers in the game. With him now out, the Giants will need to find an acceptable replacement. Given that the Giants have a strong pitching staff that should keep them in a lot of games, that replacement could have considerable value in fantasy leagues.

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Aroldis Chapman’s start to the season has been very impressive, and the big performance is a follow up to a big spring. He struck out 18 batters while walking just two in spring as a starter, and as a set up man so far this year he has 10 strikeouts and no walks in five innings pitched.

There is certainly value in speculating on Chapman, even though he is unlikely to get saves due to Sean Marshall’s presence. Marshall is a stellar pitcher, so it is doubtful that he struggles enough to lose his closing job to Chapman. Even as a set up man, Chapman could provide very good value throughout this season, especially in holds leagues like ottoneu.
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A few closers seem to be on shaky ground with their starts to the season, most notability Chris Perez and Sergio Santos. Both have started out horribly, but how horrible do they need to be to lose their jobs? Today, I am going to look at how bad a pitcher needs to suck to lose their closer role.

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Sergio Santos is a reliever I have been touting all winter, and a few bad performances are not going to change that. There are, however, some concerns after his first three outings as a Blue Jay.

His command has been non-existent in the two save attempts and one other appearance he has had this year — walking four batters and striking out just one. His fastball velocity is also down a mile per hour, which is worth noting but likely will not be an issue going forward.

Thankfully, Santos will get a bit of a breather and will be out until Saturday as his child is being born. A bit of time off might help him clear his head and hopefully he will come back strong.

His lack of a choke hold spot on the closer role is at least somewhat disconcerting. If Santos were closing games Blue Jays for the past three years, the poor performance over this small stretch might not be as worrisome. The Blue Jays possess a number of relievers who could reasonably fill the role of closer, so it is not as if Santos has no competition. Francisco Cordero is not necessarily a quality pitcher, but he has closer experience which managers are often attracted to. Jason Frasor has 36 career saves with the Blue Jays, and Casey Janssen is a sturdy reliever. Santos is easily the best option of the bunch if he is on, but these pitchers could all feasibly take over the role if Santos fails.

Instead, this is John Farrell’s first look at him on a regular basis and a slew of bad outings could force Farrell’s hand. Last year, Frank Francisco was removed from the closer role at times due to poor performances. This is just Santos’s fourth year as a pitcher, so it would be understandable for the Blue Jays to closely monitor the situation. If he blows a few more saves upon his return to the team, how could anyone blame the Jays for at least temporarily removing him from the position?

I still have faith in Santos, though. His walk rate will likely never be too impressive, which will lead to the occasional blown save, but his strikeouts should help counter that balance. I will be monitoring his velocity to see if the slight drop continues, and paying close attention to his command is also recommended. Do not lose faith in him just yet, but pay close attention to see if his poor performance is an aberration or a continuing trend.

Here at Fangraphs, we have been writing quite a few articles on the fastball speeds (here and here and here and here). The main reason for the articles is that fastball speeds stabilize fairly quickly. They can be used to understand how a pitcher may perform in the future because fastball speed is directly related to both strikeout rates and runs allowed. With this knowledge, I am going to look at how a few pitchers, that saw their velocity drop in 2011, are doing in 2012.

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Robin Ventura and Joe Maddon made confusing closer situations a bit more clear this weekend, as both have seemingly ‘named’ temporary closers. Hector Santiago, owner of a nifty screwball, and Fernando Rodney, he of the 7.88 BB/9 rate last year, will apparently be getting the save attempts for their respective teams going forward.

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Jack Moore covered this for the main site, but I wanted to touch on it from a fantasy perspective. Chris Perez blew a three-run lead in the ninth inning last night, to no surprise of anyone who has read RotoGraphs all winter. Dan Wade looked at Perez and Pestano and I elaborated on why I felt that Pestano should be drafted before spring training began.

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