The likes of Aceves, H. Santiago, F. Coredero, B. Lidge, and even A. Cashner have destroyed my ERA and WHIP categories. The teams that are dominating paid for saves and are selling them at fairly high prices (like Uggla for Papelbon).

I think the Closerpocalypse is just a sign that one can't afford to disregard those slots that can get you this one category. Call it a correction in the market, but a lesson for future seasons.

Has anyone ever experienced success punting both ERA and WHIP? The distance between me and the next placed guys is too huge to be believed.

I don't think you can win a 5x5 roto punting two categories. If your league has a high or no innings cap, just keep piling on quality starting pitching. Relievers throw very few innings compared to startersd, and even in a blowup will only give up a few runs, so enough good SP innings can make up for it.

If anything, this year proves you don't pay for saves (Bell, Marmol, Wilson, Mariano, Madson, etc. vs. Myers, Johnson, Perez, Rodriguez, Casilla, etc.)

What this proves is that you can never predict closers. You can get saves from anywhere all year long.

It proves that reliable closers are more scarce, and hence more valuable. Grabbing guys off waivers is what lead to the mess that is my ERA and WHIP. Doesn't mean that I won't continue to comb the wire, but getting a nice closer to anchor my pen will be a factor during my next draft.

Mariano Rivera was a freak accident and does not factor into my thinking at all.

Top closers are Rodney and Myers, no one paid for those...

You can't pay because you can't predict. All but one or two closer buyers are really regretting that they did pay. Right now my team has kenley jensen, and casilla closing for it and andrew bailey on my DL and I got all three off waivers. The only closer I paid for was Nathan and I paid 5 for him. There are at least three owners in my league alone that paid over ten bucks each for a closer who lost their spot to a guy I now have and got for free.

Now let's not cherry pick the closers that are ranked best at this moment, Grey. The first set of closers off the board in my league were Kimbrel, Papelbon, Rivera, and Axford. Those guys are gold (minus the freak injury to Mo that could happen at any position) right now. The point is that you are paying for 4 categories when you draft a closer earlier than your competitors with 1 an absolute necessity. Steals are cheap, yes, but saves probably need to be treated differently in this year and perhaps in general.

Axford has a 6+ ERA and 2+ WHIP... And you could have not drafted any saves in a draft and have 5 closers right now... If anything, this season proves don't pay for saves stronger than past seasons...

I guess it depends on league to some extent. I don't know of anyone that would try to draft 5 closers in my setup, but 1-2 rock solid guys? Count me in. The weight these middling guys have for destroying ERA and WHIP is ginormous.

And unless Axford's job is in jeopardy, I'd gladly pay for him. These blown saves because of some newborn baby wouldn't dissuade me from nabbing him.

I just put my money where my mouth is and offered J. Garcia for Axford.

And one last thought: I did exactly what I was supposed to this year in not paying for saves. It has absolutely destroyed 2 categories that some say that I couldn't possibly punt.