h2h Corner ~ Red Light District, the Closer Carousel
June 30, 2009
Closers do most of their work late at night, often after most upstanding fantasy managers have gone to bed. They necessitate early checking of box scores and Fantasy Baseball 101 to see if they secured the win for the home team. Read more
Saves, Saves and More Saves
June 30, 2009
One of the more interesting sub-plots from the 2009 fantasy baseball season have been the closers. Recently, I was perusing the year-to-date statistics and was amazed when I looked at the league leaders in saves. As of June 30, there are a staggering 18 closers with at least 14 saves. Although that stat immediately jumped off the page, the following stat is even more impressive: there are 13 closers with at least 18 saves. I cannot remember a time when so many closers had this many saves through the end of June. Not surprising, some of the names on this list are familiar: K-Rod, Nathan, Papelbon and Rivera. However, this list also includes guys we are not accustomed to seeing in the top level of the category, guys that probably went too late in drafts or went undrafted altogether: Franklin, Rodney and Aardsma. To try and put this in perspective, in a standard 10-team league which starts 2 closers, it is possible that 18 out of the 20 starting closers have at least 14 saves. Truly unreal!
People should not construe this article as delivering a “don’t take closers early” message. That is certainly not my intention. In fact, I am usually one of those guys that prefers to select a #1 closer fairly early; usually a guy ranked in my preseason top 8. I find it even more important to secure a strong #2 closer (usually a guy ranked in the top 13). For instance, this year I snagged Broxton as my #1 and picked up Heath Bell later on. Over the years, this strategy has worked for me.
Did You Know…?
Adam Lind hit 46 doubles and 35 HRs?
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