Archive for Carlos Marmol

– Brandon League seems to enjoy skating on thin ice. The Dodgers’ ninth-inning man blew a save in New York last night — and including tonight — has surrendered four earned runs in his last six outings. Tonight’s earned run came on a leadoff solo homer by Ike Davis of the Metropolitans. League managed to sneak his way out of the ninth without any further damage to earn his sixth save — and most importantly, a Dodgers victory — but some have to be wondering how long his leash is. League’s velocity appears to be down a few ticks and his stuff isn’t causing batters to swing-and-miss (5.3% SwStr%) as they’ve done in the past. Moreover, League has recorded just three strikeouts on the season (8.1% K%). Keep close tabs on Kenley Jansen — and even make the speculative add — if you’re as concerned as I am.

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–Addison Reed notched his third save of the season — tying him for the early league lead after the first week with Sergio Romo — dishing a perfect ninth-inning as the White Sox clipped the Mariners, 4-3. The 24-year-old Reed induced a Dustin Ackley groundout to first, then fanned pinch-hitters Franklin Gutierrez and Jesus Montero to seal the deal. The prescription was a steady diet of sliders to both Gutierrez and Montero, each of whom ended their at-bats with swings-and-misses on Reed’s preferred offering.

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-A lackluster start to the season by Detroit’s closer-by-committee situation lead the Tigers down a familiar path on Thursday. The American League Central favorites re-signed their former closer, Jose Valverde, to a minor league contract with the option to opt out by May 5th if he’s not called up to the Majors. The 35 year-old veteran is clearly not the long-term solution in Motown, but could serve as a band-aid until Phil Coke, Al Alburquerque or Joaquin Benoit decide to grab ahold of the ninth inning — or until Bruce Rondon is deemed ready for the role.

With the signing — and if he gets the call — Valverde would have the third most career saves among active, non-injured relievers. Entering today, Valverde’s 277 saves would place him behind only future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera (608) and Joe Nathan (298) among those expected to pitch in ‘13.

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• Another day, another turn of events in Chicago. Apparently on Wednesday the Cubs’ coaching staff determined that Carlos Marmol would regain the closer role as soon as the opportunity presented itself. That opportunity came today, with the Cubs leading the Red Sox 3-0 heading into the top of the ninth frame. As promised, Sveum called upon Marmol to nail down the ninth for the Cubbies. The outing wasn’t pretty, but after a hit, an error, a strikeout and a walk, the former Cubs catcher snuck his way out of a bases loaded jam to earn his third save of the season — and his first since May 2nd. Based on the skipper’s comments, Marmol is the closer to own again in Wrigleyville and fantasy baseball owners should be racing to the waiver wire to check on his availability.

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Continuing on last week’s theme, we turn our attention today to the National League fantasy All-Stars.  As a reminder, I’m basing this on the past calendar year’s performance under the FanGraphs Points scoring system.   The $ values shown are the player’s average cost on ottoneu FanGraphs Points leagues.

Catcher:  Brian McCann (894 pts, .377 wOBA, $30)
Alternates: Buster Posey (753 pts, .368 wOBA, $31) and Carlos Ruiz  (595 pts, .350 wOBA, $5)

Brian McCann is such a stud.  He’s been the best fantasy catcher in the National League for years, and yet somehow I think he still is a bit underrated.  Speaking of underrated, Carlos Ruiz has been a monster over the past year, even if he doesn’t play as often as some of the big guns.  I have him in a 20-team league and can’t find anyone who wants him!

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As much joy as the game of fantasy baseball brings to most of us, it can also bring an enormous amount of frustration and anxiety.  They say you shouldn’t keep that sort of stuff bottled up inside you, unless, of course, you enjoy the taste of bile and all the other stomach acids that a bleeding ulcer provides.  You need to get it out.  But what are you going to do, bitch to your girlfriend?  Try to gain sympathy from your fellow owners?  Doubtful.   Her level of care is reciprocal to your level of interest in her best friend’s latest relationship disaster and deep down, your fellow owners are wishing this kind of stuff on you. Read the rest of this entry »

Due to a combination of a tremendous strikeout mark, a solid ERA and a nice WHIP, Carlos Marmol had a fantasy value of roughly $6 in a 12-team mixed league last year. That figures to go up substantially in 2009 as he takes over the closer’s role for the Cubs with the departure of Kerry Wood.

Some owners will be wary of Marmol, due to the fact that he hasn’t been a closer for a full season previously. Others will point to his high walk rate, while some will be scared off by his FIP, which was nearly a run higher than his actual ERA. There are also questions about his stamina, as a rough patch in June was attributed to fatigue.

Smart fantasy owners will use all of these fears to acquire Marmol cheaper than he should go in an auction or later than he should go in a draft.

While Marmol has not closed previously, he converted seven of eight save chances last year (one of his two blown saves came in the seventh inning). The walk rate is definitely a concern, but as Francisco Rodriguez has shown the last few years, a high strikeout rate can offset a poor walk rate. Most of Marmol’s poor outings came between May 31 and July 2. But whatever was bothering him then was quickly rectified. After the break he had a 1.29 ERA with 16 BB and 44 K in 35 IP.

The Cubs also have former Marlins closer Kevin Gregg and former college football star Jeff Samardzija in the bullpen. They may siphon off some saves during the year, but in 2008 Wood had 34 of the team’s 44 saves. Since the Norm Charlton–Heathcliff Slocumb fiasco in 1997, manager Lou Piniella has displayed a strong preference for one closer in his next 10 seasons at the helm. Not once in those 10 years have two relievers on a Piniella-managed team reached double digits in saves.

Wood had a $19 season in 2008 and was a top-25 pitcher overall as the Cubs closer. I might be a tad more conservative than that for Marmol, but I would expect that to be a ballpark figure of his worth in 2009.