Updated Consensus Ranks: Relief Pitchers
We’re going to do something a little different here. The Bullpen Report guys — Alan Harrison, Benjamin Pasinkoff and Colin Zarzycki — are knee-deep in every bullpen every night, just to update you. So they’re in a great position to rank relievers when it comes to 5×5 roto leagues.
So they’ve got the keys to the car, and now they get to wreck it.
We all know reliever rankings have the shortest shelf life. One of these guys blows three saves in a row and he just completely falls off the rankings. And yet, even for established relievers that will survive all year, it’s useful to stack them up against each other. Because relievers do contribute in categories other than saves — if you have three Jim Johnsons and I have three Joe Nathans, you’re going to cede me around 60 strikeouts. That would be painful in the final calculation.
Who catches your eye today?
With the color-coding we hope to highlight the biggest movers. That definition changes as you follow the ranks down the list — players had to move more to register a color change as you near the bottom of the list. In this case, these new rankings were done by different people than the last rankings, so keep that in mind. These are rest-of-season rankings for 5×5 roto.
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.
List actually looks super solid on my first pass through guys, nice work.
My only gripe: it would be cool if it could go about twice as deep to help people in Holds leagues. It seems to me that FanGraph’s demographics are increasingly involved in those leagues which very much value the middle relievers.
You should see a holds rankings piece from Alan Harrison at some point, which should help flush that bit out. And I think the chart on the BR is good for that too.
Yea, I can post a holds rankings piece this week. Check back Thursday morning. Thanks for the suggestion.
Awesome. I’ve been waiting for a holds piece all year. There just isn’t anything out there. I imagine these rankings would change in holds leagues, as someone like Melancon may become more valuable because of his numbers, despite his low chances of becoming a closer (and conversely someone like Marmol..shudder…will have little value given the fact that his only plus is that he might become a closer someday.
I typically publish my “Scheming For Relief” column on Thursdays which revolves around middle relievers and holds.
Yes, a holds article will be valuable. Sometimes analysts forget that owners in holds leagues may not want a valuable holds guy to get promoted to closer when they rank.
I too am in a league that counts holds. As a result, I’d rank Melancon about 10 spots higher. And have Tanner Scheppers ranked.
Actually, I’d do that anyway, even for this list, which is biased for saves. Both of those pitchers have been dominating and are clear next-in-lines. And even in standard leagues, they will help with stats. The only negatives would be that the closers on their teams have been solid (no current possibility to become closer) and ROS factors.
I look forward to seeing the extended reliever rankings. I like those “scheming for relief” articles too.
Don’t publish too much on it though, as I can’t have the other owners in my holds league figuring this stuff out.