Until we go over the top 20 closers of the 2009 fantasy baseball season, this is our last closer ranking. Too bad, so sad. For those in very deep leagues, I give you the name Matt Lindstrom. Not so your friends now call you that. No, I give it to you as an example of what can be found in September closers. Teams who fall out of the race (Indians), or teams that can’t afford to lose a lot of games (Phils) sometimes flip the script in September. With the Indians, for instance, they may realize watching Wood be meh isn’t as exciting as giving the ball to a potential closer of the future (Chris Perez). Now during the daily roundups and Buy/Sells, I’m sure I’ll mention closers to watch, but keep in mind guys that don’t have the job, but may get the audition. Anyway, here’s all of the closers for your fantasy baseball team, as of right now:
$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. Joe Nathan (+1) (Matt Guerrier, Jon Rauch)
2. Mariano Rivera (+2) (Phil Hughes)
3. Jonathan Papelbon (-1) (Takashi Saito, Hideki Okajima, Manny Delcarmen)
4. Jonathan Broxton (+1) (George Sherrill, Ramon Troncoso)
5. Francisco Rodriguez (-2) (Pedro Feliciano, Sean Green)
Donkey-corns
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 his 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 Donkey-corns.
6. Ryan Franklin (+4) (Kyle McClellan, Dennys Reyes)
7. Heath Bell (-1) (Luke Gregerson)
8. Brian Fuentes (+11) (Jason Bulger, Kevin Jepsen)
9. David Aardsma (+10) (Sean White, Mark Lowe)
10. Huston Street (+1) (Rafael Betancourt, Matt Daley)
11. Joakim Soria (-4) (Jamey Wright, John Bale)
12. Brian Wilson (+1) (Jeremy Affeldt, Bob Howry)
13. Jose Valverde (-4) (LaTroy Hawkins)
14. Trevor Hoffman (Todd Coffey, Mitch Stetter)
15. Andrew Bailey (+8) (Michael Wuertz, Brad Ziegler)
16. Francisco Cordero (-8) (Arthur Rhodes, Nick Masset)
17. Fernando Rodney (-1) (Bobby Seay, Brandon Lyon)
18. Carlos Marmol (-3) (Angel Guzman, John Grabow)
19. Bobby Jenks (+8) (Matt Thornton, Octavio Dotel, Scott Linebrink)
20. Rafael Soriano (-3) (Mike Gonzalez, Peter Moylan)
21. J.P. Howell (-3) (Dan Wheeler, Grant Balfour)
Brain Freeze
I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples, bananas and Troy Percival– Wait, he just gave up 12 earned runs and hit Pena in the head with a pickoff throw. Brain freeze! Make it stop! Use the following closers at your own risk.
22. Leo Nunez (+7) (Matt Lindstrom, Kiko Calero, Dan Meyer)
23. Frank Francisco (+3) (C.J. Wilson, Darren O’Day)
24. Mike MacDougal (Jason Bergmann)
25. Kerry Wood (-2) (Chris Perez, Rafael Perez, Joe Smith)
26. Jim Johnson (+4) (Danys Baez)
27. Matt Capps (-5) (Jesse Chavez)
28. Brad Lidge (-7) (Ryan Madson, Scott Eyre, Random Fan Who Wins A Contest)
29. Jason Frasor/Scott Downs (-1) (Brandon League)
30. Chad Qualls (-10) (Juan Gutierrez, Clay Zavada, Esmerling Vasquez, Daniel Schlereth, Blaine Boyer, Ken Patera.)
