RotoGraphs Consensus Rankings: Relievers

by
March 8, 2013

Relievers! Are they the kickers of fantasy baseball? It might be even worse: kickers at least give you straight points. There is no ‘field goal’ category. There is a ‘saves’ category, however, and only relievers can get you anywhere in that category. So hold your nose and jump in.

I’m a big fan of picking at the end of tiers — and your bullpen reporters will get you tiered rankings soon, and then give you daily updates about bullpens around the league — so there are some names that jump out at me. Joe Nathan looks like the last guy we all agree belongs in the top tier. Then somewhere around Rafael Soriano and Tom Wilhelmsen there seems to be a second tier. Then I’d usually take a break and take two fliers. Let’s say two of Ryan Madson, Steve Cishek and Bobby Parnell. Then again, my “closers” in AL-LABR were Jose Veras, Joaquin Benoit, and Andrew Bailey.

I don’t like to pay much for saves, in other words.

If you end up in similar position, maybe you’ll like Luke Gregerson, Kyuji Fujikawa, Jake McGee and David Hernandez. Since over a third of closers lose their job to injury or poor play every year, it’s a virtual guarantee one of these guys will accrue saves. Good luck hunting.

(The projections are from Steamer, and are not the sole basis for each analyst’s rankings.)

RotoG ES JZ MP ZS Name IP GS SO W ERA WHIP SV
1 1 1 1 1 Craig Kimbrel 54 83 4 1.89 1.04 35
2 4 2 2 2 Jonathan Papelbon 55 63 4 2.66 1.12 35
3 2 4 3 3 Jason Motte 53 57 4 2.79 1.17 33
4 3 9 4 7 Joe Nathan 46 47 3 3.16 1.23 33
5 10 5 7 8 Sergio Romo 47 48 3 2.81 1.15 31
6 15 3 8 13 John Axford 56 63 4 3.08 1.26 32
7 11 11 9 10 Glen Perkins 56 56 4 3.01 1.2 30
8 6 17 6 16 J.J. Putz 43 44 3 3.02 1.2 31
9 16 14 10 5 Fernando Rodney 55 53 3 3.33 1.31 33
10 8 13 5 20 Greg Holland 48 54 3 3.12 1.29 31
11 5 25 13 4 Rafael Soriano 50 49 3 3.28 1.26 33
12 9 12 22 6 Tom Wilhelmsen 56 53 3 3.4 1.3 35
13 12 8 19 17 Rafael Betancourt 47 45 3 3.36 1.23 35
14 23 7 14 18 Jason Grilli 51 59 3 2.9 1.22 31
15 28 6 20 9 Kenley Jansen 42 58 3 2.4 1.14 17
16 7 31 12 14 Mariano Rivera 38 33 2 3.54 1.29 35
17 18 18 18 11 Grant Balfour 56 52 3 3.55 1.32 23
18 14 24 15 23 Huston Street 40 40 3 2.96 1.2 35
19 17 23 11 27 Addison Reed 45 44 3 3.51 1.28 32
20 13 21 16 31 Joel Hanrahan 49 49 3 3.47 1.33 32
21 19 40 21 12 Jim Johnson 55 37 3 3.56 1.32 33
22 20 33 27 15 Chris Perez 45 40 3 3.73 1.34 31
23 24 26 24 32 Jonathan Broxton 47 41 3 3.53 1.32 33
24 33 16 31 26 Ernesto Frieri 50 60 3 3.25 1.29 16
25 22 41 23 22 Steve Cishek 48 44 3 3.5 1.35 27
26 32 19 34 25 Vinnie Pestano 57 59 4 3.26 1.27 2
27 30 45 17 21 Casey Janssen 43 40 3 3.19 1.22 22
28 26 27 26 43 Carlos Marmol 45 54 3 3.56 1.4 25
29 27 52 28 24 Ryan Madson 36 31 2 3.51 1.29 29
30 44 32 25 35 Sean Marshall 53 54 4 2.87 1.19
31 47 36 37 19 Trevor Rosenthal 70 3 63 4 3.71 1.34 1
32 37 39 35 30 Ryan Cook 64 1 61 4 3.51 1.32 5
33 25 46 32 44 Bobby Parnell 54 50 4 3.2 1.28 8
34 35 22 65 38 David Hernandez 57 66 4 3.01 1.23
35 36 29 65 33 Joaquin Benoit 53 55 3 3.15 1.23 2
36 39 15 65 45 David Robertson 51 59 3 2.96 1.23 4
37 31 48 38 48 Jose Veras 54 52 3 3.77 1.38 16
38 43 34 65 29 Luke Gregerson 60 52 4 3.27 1.26
39 34 38 39 62 Kyuji Fujikawa
40 65 10 65 39 Tyler Clippard 63 69 4 3.18 1.25
41 21 78 29 57 Brandon League 56 46 4 3.33 1.32 11
42 48 42 65 37 Drew Storen 50 46 3 3.28 1.26 10
43 57 49 33 54 Jonny Venters 55 58 4 2.91 1.29
44 38 72 36 55 Frank Francisco 37 35 2 3.47 1.31 15
45 65 37 65 34 Drew Smyly 72 12 62 5 4.01 1.32
46 45 44 30 84 Rex Brothers 50 59 3 3.35 1.34 3
47 46 65 40 52 Bruce Rondon 32 18 1 5.34 1.69 22
48 42 59 65 42 Jake McGee 39 45 3 2.77 1.17
49 65 30 65 49 Joel Peralta 57 58 4 3.31 1.24
50 40 65 42 65 Brandon Lyon 39 33 2 3.75 1.35
51 51 47 65 50 Kelvin Herrera 57 52 4 3.21 1.27
52 49 62 65 41 Santiago Casilla 59 50 4 3.54 1.34 3
53 41 60 65 53 Al Alburquerque 46 51 3 3.34 1.33 3
54 29 76 41 76 Sergio Santos 35 37 2 3.37 1.31 7
55 65 35 65 60 Darren O’Day 60 51 4 3.69 1.28
56 54 50 65 65 Sean Doolittle 42 47 3 2.88 1.2
57 65 55 65 59 Mike Adams 50 44 3 3.44 1.27 1
58 50 67 65 77 Carter Capps 47 52 3 3.1 1.26
59 53 137 65 64 J.J. Hoover 30 1 31 2 3.55 1.31

Other relievers ranked by one analyst in their top 75: Brian Wilson, Nate Jones, Kyle McPherson, Brad Boxberger, Pedro Strop, Stephen Pryor, Mark Melancon, Jim Henderson, Bryan Morris, Tim Collins, Brian Matusz, Matt Belisle, Koji Uehara, Aaron Crow, Jake Arrieta, Eric O’Flaherty, Jeremy Affeldt, Ronald Belisario, Jared Burton, Francisco Rodriguez, Sam LeCure, Craig Stammen, Charlie Furbush, Tom Gorzelanny, George Kontos, Matt Thornton, Adam Ottavino, Brad Brach, James Russell, Octavio Dotel, Jose Valverde, Antonio Bastardo, Jordan Walden, Jesse Crain, Mitchell Boggs, Jose Arredondo, Joe Smith, Andrew Bailey, Anthony Bass, Brad Ziegler, and Joba Chamberlain.





 

With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.

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Phil
12 years ago

I’m curious why JZ is so down on Soriano and Jim Johnson (talk about a roller coaster ranking)….

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Jeff ZimmermanFanGraphs Staff
12 years ago
Reply to  Phil

Eno asked me the same question before he released them.

My pitching projections are based almost entirely off of K’s, BB and Save chances.

For Johnson, his lack of strikeouts brought him down

For Soriano, his value came out lumped in with 12 other closers and he got the short straw. He easily could be moved up into the low teams.

As Eno stated, relievers and starters should be grouped in tiers, which is what I do. At this point, a person is splitting c…..at hairs to see who is better than who.

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