Scheming For Relief: Middle Reliever Tiers, Last 30 Days

May 22, 2015

Lots of folks here at RotoGraphs have been updating their positional tiers in the past week or more, so I figured to piggyback on their efforts and create reliever tiers over the past 30 days. In an effort to chop this list down, I focused on arms with at least ten appearances, one hold, an ERA less than 5.00 and a K-BB% at 10% or better. Also, the relievers appear in tiers and are listed in no particular order within their respective tier.

Tier One: Double India Pale Ales

Dellin Betances | Yankees
Evan Scribner | Athletics
Josh Fields | Astros
Joe Smith | Angels

In my book, the Double India Pale Ales take the cake. And so do these four relief arms. Despite the lack of holds, Fields’ K-BB% and ratios have been elite. He’d be a useful addition to just about any pitching staff in any format, if you can roster him. Betances and Scribner have had a fantastic month, contributing across the board for their real and fake teams. Joe Smith is racking up the holds, but is trailing the other three in strikeouts and ratios. All are great options in hold or solds (holds + saves) leagues, but the first three definitely have traditional 5×5 mixed league value.

Tier Two: India Pale Ales

India Pale Ales are just a step below the DIPA, but still get the job done with little left to be desired. Outside of holds/solds leagues, A.J. Ramos is one of the arms from this tier that I’d consider rostering in mixers thanks to the steady contributions across the board with the saves upside. Zach McAllister followed by Carson Smith would be my second and third choices from the IPA tier to add in my mixed leagues to help pad the strikeout category and to maintain ratios.

Tier Three: Saisons

Saisons. They get the job done, but just a little bit differently. They each seem to have a fairly safe floor along with a decent ceiling. But each of these guys come with some risk, whether it be with the ratios or in the K-BB%.

Tier Four: Sours

Lots of saves upside in this tier with the likes of Jim Johnson and Chad Qualls. Ken Giles was a popular name prior to the season with the idea that he would be the next man for ninth-inning duties in Philadelphia should Jonathan Papelbon be dealt on or before the trade deadline. Giles is still experiencing a pretty significant dip in velocity on his fastball and slider compared to last season’s readings, which could be the reason he’s inducing fewer swinging strikes and isn’t striking out as many batters.

Tier Five: Yellow Fizzy Beers

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Okay, that might not be the right analogy, but I’m guessing you’ll pick up what I’m putting down. Anyway, streaming guys in the tiers above are always fun when a team’s closer has pitched a few consecutive days. Kevin Jepson, Pedro Strop and Blaine Boyer each failed to make the list for one reason or another based on the parameters I arbitrarily set during my research, but they each deserve to be mentioned here.

The chart I used to identify my top relievers over the past 30 days can do downloaded here, or you can just see it here:

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Mike R.

9 years ago

If I’m looking to pick up one or two of these guys, how much weight should I put on the tier ranking in the above, as far as rest-of-season value? This was for the past 30 days, but how much predictive value do you think it has? Anyone in those first two tiers who you’d be particularly skeptical on for ROS, or particularly bullish on? Thanks

Reply to Mike R.

To clarify, my question is really how you would rank guys like Scribner, Fields, Carson Smith, McAllister for ROS, and would you put them above guys in tiers below them? Or would ROS tiers look totally different? (Betances and Ramos and the like are gone in every league, so I leave those types of guys out)

Alan HarrisonMember since 2016

Good question. Relievers tend to be pretty volatile. And there a lot of them to choose from, so you can add and drop with little reservation. These are the top 49 over the past 30 days according to the parameters I set. Depending on your needs and the makeup of your current pitching staff, I’d feel comfortable adding most of these guys.

With that said, if i’m in a non-holds/solds league, I’d be looking for guys with the highest K-BB%, whose ERA & FIP are pretty well aligned and have some saves upside. Betances, Ramos, Smith may have the most saves upside in the top two tiers, so that’s where I’d start. I actually own Fields/Scribner/McAllister a few times, so that really helps me in ratios, Ks and the occasional scab win. I stream a bunch of these guys regularly in leagues without transaction limits. Hope this helps.

Atreyu Jones

Reply to Alan Harrison

If I’m understanding correctly, this is a tiered-ranking of recent performance of non-closers; based on a league that uses W, SV, HLD, K%, BB%, K-BB%, ERA, and FIP?

Those are simply some of the statistics that I choose to use when evaluating relievers. And yes, it helped me in creating those tiers.

Gerry GeurtsMember since 2016

Would is make sense to add saves and holds together for guys who are not the official closer? Like Davis?

Steve

Wade Davis has a 0.79 ERA since the start of 2014 (91 innings). Not sure I see much risk, especially in comparison to the Top Tier guys. ERA since 2014:

Davis – 0.79
Betances – 1.12
Smith – 1.93
Scribner – 3.34
Fields – 3.94

It is a bit ridiculous to have any metrics that claim Davis isn’t among the top tier, let alone top 2 tiers, of middle relievers in the game.

Jayjay

How do you stream relief pitchers? We know for certain when a starting pitcher is going to appear in a game, but not relievers. How do you do it?

BAL	CHW	ATH
BOS	CLE	HOU
NYY	DET	LAA
TBR	KCR	SEA
TOR	MIN	TEX

ATL	CHC	ARI
MIA	CIN	COL
NYM	MIL	LAD
PHI	PIT	SDP
WSN	STL	SFG