Archive for Relief Pitchers

In the playoffs, pitching identities become extra apparent as teams look to lean on strengths; the Rays, Brewers, and Red Sox led all of baseball in usage of certain single-pitch types, which helped guide them to playoff places. These trends are by no means a coincidence and make up the blueprint of team ideologies. But these ideologies shift and evolve season to season and can often be useful as a predictive measure of how teams visualize their pitching going into next season, whether that’s molding pitchers to fit their philosophy or bringing in arms that can better reinforce their vision than their current staff.

Going through every team’s pitch usage trends, there were certain teams that stuck to their tendencies. The Brewers’ cutter and the Mariners’ slider-and-sinker profile stayed true, but some notable new trends did occur.

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In an attempt to improve what I find most challenging when constructing my fantasy roster, I found a league this season that could help me address those shortcomings, with the hope that it would also inform my approach in future seasons across all formats. This was joining a league with scoring that heavily favored relievers, with increased points for saves and holds, and minus points for blown saves.

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Over a fantasy season, it’s hard to trace results back to the decisions or actions you took that led to that result. We take so many actions from keepers (if your league has them), to the draft, to trades, to FAAB or waiver moves, to lineup decisions, that parsing what mattered and what didn’t can be impossible.

Instead, I find it is more productive to evaluate things the other direction – look at decisions you made or actions you took, determine how they impacted your final results, and then decide if you did something right and repeatable or wrong and avoidable. That is how I started the analysis of my trade for Tarik Skubal. And that’s why I am diving into my bullpen in Ottoneu League 1.

I felt I had a strong team, with a good lineup and a top-tier rotation. I finished 4th. That’s not terrible – we pay out the top four spots and I still get bragging rights over eight managers, many of whom I have competed with for nearly two decades. But it isn’t what I hoped. And the bullpen might be why.

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Like a moth drawn to a flame, I find myself returning to the strange comforts of relief pitcher analysis.

In last week’s article, I looked at whether or not there seems to be big-picture movements in relief pitcher value and found that generally, despite the overall vibe shift and changing usage patterns, the proportion of good reliever seasons and distribution among the players accruing these seasons is not materially changing.

But – as one commenter noted – what about SVHD (saves + holds) leagues? It’s a fair question and one to which I am personally sympathetic. Despite all of my digital hullabaloo about standard 5×5 roto settings, I don’t actually play in a league where holds are not counted. As more and more home leagues shift away from saves dominance it might be worth a closer look.

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Back again to the bailiwick which is perhaps my least compelling at cocktail parties (and trust me, this is saying something): relief pitcher fantasy performance.

A while ago, I looked at whether or not drafting relievers was worthwhile and found, ultimately, that yes, it is worth devoting targeted draft capital to relief pitchers. But one of the outstanding questions from that analysis was whether the composition of reliever performance is changing over time, so that’s what I decided to look into next.

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Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

Every year I report on how many closers made it through the season and how Saves were distributed (2025 report). I need help verifying that the following list is correct before writing the final report next week. Crowd-sourcing this information is a great way to make sure we have the right baseline for the report. It would be a big help if you could review the table below and offer any notes you have in the comments. At least take a look at the notes column to check if I’m right since those are the teams with the most questions? Thanks.

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Below are the latest notable playing time projection changes for pitchers for the last two weeks, starting with starters and moving onto relievers in the second table.

Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images

Every Sunday, in my waiver report I rank lowly rostered closers that might be worth a pickup. I add a note to each closer, in the following format:

Relievers: Saves-based ranks

Grant Taylor: Good reliever who could be the closer.

Andrew Kittredge: Good reliever who seems to be the closer.

Clayton Beeter: Average reliever who is the closer.

I don’t go into details on a pitcher’s talent, but use adjectives like “Good” or “Below-Average” to give readers a sense of how I value view that pitcher’s talent. I’ve winged those values using the season’s results from our Closer Depth Charts.

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“I think you know my opinion on RP.”

• Trusted leaguemate and fellow fantasy writer Sam Lutz

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Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Over the years, I’ve gone to the cutting edge of stats to find advantages. I can go into a deep analysis on any player’s fantasy value, but there isn’t always time to analyze each player’s profile. For a shortcut, I use OPS to evaluate hitters and xFIP and botERA for pitchers. They give me a good predictive look, especially in a small sample. Besides those stats, I might make a cursory look at BABIP and Contact% for hitters and K%-BB% for pitchers.

Note: Recent plate appearances could be the #1 stat to follow for hitters, but I’m going to focus on production stats.

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