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.

RG Top Relievers AH BP CZ
1 Craig Kimbrel 1 1 1
2 Aroldis Chapman 2 2 2
3 Mariano Rivera 3 3 4
4 Sergio Romo 6 7 3
5 Jonathan Papelbon 8 4 5
6 Addison Reed 4 5 9
7 Jason Grilli 7 6 6
8 Joe Nathan 5 8 12
9 Rafael Soriano 10 9 8
10 Tom Wilhelmsen 9 10 14
11 Casey Janssen 13 14 7
12 Glen Perkins 15 11 10
13 Edward Mujica 11 12 17
14 Jim Henderson 12 18 16
15 Greg Holland 23 13 11
16 Jim Johnson 19 15 13
17 Rafael Betancourt 14 16 19
18 Bobby Parnell 21 17 22
19 Fernando Rodney 22 22 18
20 Andrew Bailey 18 25 20
21 Huston Street 16 23 24
22 Grant Balfour 25 19 21
23 Ernesto Frieri 20 21 25
24 Heath Bell 17 24 28
25 Kenley Jansen 28 27 15
26 Chris Perez 29 20 23
27 Jose Valverde 26 26 29
28 Kevin Gregg 24 30 31
29 Jose Veras 27 29 30
30 Steve Cishek 32 32 27
31 David Hernandez 30 28 35
32 Brandon League 31 31 33
33 Ryan Madson 36 34 26
34 Trevor Rosenthal 33 33 39
35 Junichi Tazawa 35 35 36
36 Kyuji Fujikawa 34 40 34
37 Joel Peralta 41 41 32
38 David Robertson 38 36 41
39 Luke Gregerson 37 39 41
40 Vinnie Pestano 39 38 41
41 Joaquin Benoit 41 41 37
42 Ryan Cook 41 37 41
43 Mark Melancon 41 41 38
44 John Axford 41 41 40





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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Giovani
10 years ago

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.

Alan Harrisonmember
10 years ago
Reply to  Giovani

Yea, I can post a holds rankings piece this week. Check back Thursday morning. Thanks for the suggestion.

ndbrian
10 years ago
Reply to  Alan Harrison

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.

Alan Harrisonmember
10 years ago
Reply to  Alan Harrison

I typically publish my “Scheming For Relief” column on Thursdays which revolves around middle relievers and holds.

Holds
10 years ago
Reply to  Alan Harrison

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.

Cheesewhiz
10 years ago
Reply to  Giovani

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.

Jon L.
10 years ago
Reply to  Giovani

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.