Big changes since last week kibitzed away and lot’s of rankings went up and down. The regions in the south seem to be upping the border patrol in regards to the save situation, as both Texas and Arizona are forming committees. For this week, I would rather focus on the desert instead of the burbs of Arlington. So with the demotion of Addison Reed and a full on committee type approach, I am throwing my sombrero on Enrique Burgos to stay, maintain, and hold the job. I have touted him on two previous occasions as the “next gunslinger to be” down there, and well, guess what? He’s here… sorta. Until Chip Hale realizes that he has a 60’s sitcom name and gets his head out of the Archie comics, we may be stuck withe the veteran preference type thing. We shouldn’t be, but most likely will be. We have seen what Zig-Zag has done and Reed? Well, he’s cooked in my eyes. Enrique is the goods. He is the typical high 90’s fastball having nonsense closer that you want. His minor league numbers suggest a high K rate, an occasional propensity to give up a walk, but he is young and sealing his oats. Be semi-patient, he has 18 total innings above A-ball. So far in the majors, he has 20 k’s in 11 plus innings. That is pretty nasty.
- I mentioned the Texas sitch, and wanted to subtext it because I felt more compelled to do the Snakes. The 3-headed closer-clops that will exist there is screaming for Keone Kela to take over. Shawn Tolleson has the look to be a place holder closer until the time comes and Jeff Bannister goes all John Fogerty to Kela, just to the mound instead of center field.
- This next week-to-ten day period is going to be a monitoring situation for the Rays closer. Box has done absolutely nothing, but his job. The return of Jake McGee either adds to him being more dominant, because Jake is a pretty nasty LH and can shorten the game adding to the running stat total of Brad. Hold on to McGee for now because from my seat, which is really far from TB, he isn’t going to hurt you but help in rates, K’s, and some sneaky wins.
- Kenley Jansen has come to bury any worry that Donnie Mismanage has with the end game for the Dodgers. So far so good: two games, 2 innings, 5 K’s. He is going to be in the edible category next time and deservedly so.
- I am officially putting Kimbrel and Roldy on notice. Rosenthal is doing it and doing it better, Miller… same thing. Chapman and Miller are both LH, but compare the numbers… it’s close, but Miller is better.
$12 Salads
You know that restaurant your girlfriend/wife/what-have-you likes to go to that charges, like, $12 for a salad? Every time you go there, you have a thoroughly solid meal. No complaints, except you just paid $12 for a salad when you could’ve went to McDonald’s and stuffed you and your woman for ten schmools and had $2 in quarters left over to make the hotel bed vibrate. These closers are $12 salads.
1. Trevor Rosenthal – (Kevin Siegrist, Seth Maness)
2. Craig Kimbrel – (Joaquin Benoit, Kevin Quackenbush)
3. Andrew Miller – (Dellin Betances, David Carpenter)
4. Aroldis Chapman – (Tony Cingrani, Jumbo Diaz)
5. David Robertson – (Zach Duke, Dan Jennings)
6. Huston Street – (Joe Smith, Mike Morin)
Donkeycorns
Imagine you’re following a donkey, who’s wearing a wool cap, through a desert for 1700 miles. Why are you following a donkey? Because he promises you something wonderful and you just need to trust him. Does the donkey talk? Yes. Yes, he does talk. So when you and the donkey in the wool cap arrive at his destination, he removes the wool cap to reveal a horn. The donkey is a unicorn and his gift to you for your trust is saves. These closers are Donkeycorns.
7. Greg Holland– (Wade Davis, Kelvin Herrera)
8. Glen Perkins – (Aaron Thompson, Blaine Boyer)
9 Kenley Jansen — (Chris Hatcher, Yimi Garcia)
10. Jonathan Papelbon – (Ken Giles, Jake Diekman)
11. Drew Storen – (Aaron Barrett, Tanner Roark)
12. Jeurys Familia – (Carlos Torres, Alex Torres, Bobby Parnell -DL)
13. Fernando Rodney – (Carson Smith, Danny Farquhar)
14. Zach Britton – (Darren O’Day, Tommy Hunter)
15. Francisco Rodriguez, (Jonathan Broxton, Will Smith)
16. Koji Uehara – (Junichi Tazawa, Alexei Ogando)
17. Hector Rondon – (Pedro Strop, Jason Motte)
18. Mark Melancon — (Tony Watson, Jared Hughes, Arquimedes Caminero)
19. Joakim Soria – (Joba Chamberlain, Tom Gorzellany)
20. Santiago Casilla – (Sergio Romo, Jean Machi)
21. Cody Allen – (Bryan Shaw, Zach McAllister)
22. Jason Grilli – (Jim Johnson, Luis Avilan)
Employed
These guys are the men that make the save market go round. They punch in, punch out. Have the job, no real threat to speak of, and are basically just there to collect great benny’s so they can take care of their crippled brother. Who is only really crippled because he is scared of the sun.
23. Luke Gregerson – (Chad Qualls, Pat Neshek)
24. Brad Boxberger – (Jake McGee, Kevin Jepsen)
25. John Axford – (Boone Logan, Rafael Betancourt)
26. Brett Cecil — (Roberto Osuna, Aaron Loup )
27. Tyler Clippard – (Sean Doolittle -DL, Dan Otero, Evan Scribner)
Brain Freezes
I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples, bananas and Carlos Marmol– Wait, he just gave up 12 earned runs and hit Castro in the head with a pick-off throw. Brain freeze! Make it stop! Use the following closers at your own risk.
28. A.J. Ramos – (Mike Dunn. Steve Cishek)
29. Enrique Burgos – (Brad Ziegler, Addison Reed)
30. (Shawn Tolleson/Neftali Feliz/ Keone Kela)