This week I’ll tackle the National League (Sorry, football season never really ends for me). I know it doesn’t get better than this — let’s party till the ‘rents come home. I don’t know what intrigues me more: relief pitching or if someone is eating ice cream and I don’t know what flavor it is. I digress, but, nonetheless, relief pitching changes from day to day.
Please, blog, may I have some more?George Sherrill
The murmurs of Heath Bell getting traded to another team by July are getting louder. (BTW, I love the word murmurs. I really wanted the survivors on Lost to call The Others, The Murmurs. Wouldn’t that have been awesome?! Okay, maybe me.) Prepare for a dozen or so posts titled, “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” at some of our weak sister sites. And by “weak sister,” I’m talking prison slang and I mean ESPN. I moved Bell down one whole spot. I’m not worried in March about someone who might get traded in July. He will probably drop one or two spots each month until July. If you get 23 saves, a 1.69 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 42 Ks in 37 1/3 innings pre-All-Star Break, you’ll be mad you drafted him? Bee tee dubya, those were his 1st half numbers last year. Then who knows where he goes. Maybe Lidge and Madson finally give Manuel a coronary and Bell takes over the closing duties in Philly as Victorino player-manages. Or maybe Bell goes somewhere else. You get the picture; it’s still early. Don’t overestimate-slash-overthink-slash-overrate… Just don’t “over” anything. 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?
Please, blog, may I have some more?Since our last check up no games have been played, but there was movement on the closer rankings. Was it February Grey getting bored and mixing things up? Probably, but let’s pretend there’s some logic in my reasoning. Next to the closers that moved, there’s a plus or minus.
Please, blog, may I have some more?The 2010 fantasy baseball rankings are just about in the bag, but first we look at the top 20 middle relievers for 2010 fantasy baseball. No, next we’re not going to do the Top 20 Guys Who Will Have The Most Balks. Chillax. The only fantasy baseballers (<–my Mom’s term) that seem to pay attention to middle relievers are those that play in a Holds league. That’s wrong, I tell ya. A great way to balance out your ratios is by carrying a few middle relievers on your staff. (BTW, Ron Jeremy can carry three middle relievers on his staff.) Say you had James Shields last year and he mistook your team’s ERA for his toilet, but you also had Takashi Saito. With just Shields, you had the 4.14 ERA dump to clean up. With Saito and his brand new toilet brush, you had a 3.80 ERA. If you also carried Matt Thornton, you had a combined 3.59 ERA. Not to mention, you had 6 vulture saves. Oh, and your WHIP went from Shields’s 1.41 to 1.28 and had an additional 139 Ks. Middle relievers can also help balance out your junky closers. Okay, school’s out, Alice Cooper. Anyway, here’s the top 20 middle relievers for 2010 fantasy baseball:
1.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Our first look at closers for the 2010 fantasy baseball season, including some recent movees. I already went over Billy Wagner to the Braves, Lindstrom to the Astros, Rafael Soriano to the Rays and Capps to the Nats. Since then, Mike Gonzalez is a movee to Baltimore. Bobby Cox was unable to get fully behind a lefty cl0ser, but that doesn’t mean Mike Gonzalez can’t find success with the Orioles. The only major negative with Mike Gonzalez is I have to write out Mike Gonzalez’s entire name every time I mention Mike Gonzalez because it doesn’t sound right any other way. It’s still real early in the preseason for closers. Sometimes these battles aren’t decided until the last week of spring training (you still have time, Astros!). So this is a like a Google Map of closers that might lead you down a road closed for construction. 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?
Please, blog, may I have some more?With the the top 20 closers for 2009 fantasy baseball, we’ve finished our recap of the 2009 fantasy baseball rankings. This is our final look back. This is still a look back. It is not how I’d rank them for 2010 aka next year. As with the other rankings, the final rankings come from ESPN’s Player Rater. I did this so I could objectively critique MY preseason rankings to THEIR end season ones. Their rankings for closers weigh wins and Ks very heavily, but whatevs. At least it’s unbiased. There’s a theme in the top 20 closers for 2009 fantasy baseball we need to address. There’s more unranked players in this post than any of the previous ones. With 8 of 20 closers being unranked. This is why you never pay for closers. They’re unpredictable. The ones that you think will do good disappoint (K-Rod) or flat-out suck (Lidge). Then there’s the ones that just come out of nowhere. It all comes back to SAGNOF! Anyway, here’s the top 20 closers for 2009 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:
1.
Please, blog, may I have some more?It’s good to be past the trading deadline. The closers that kept their job feel woobie-safe. Pull down the Murphy bed, Qualls is here to stay! You might be right, random italicized voice. Don’t forget, closers still find a way to lose their job. In the past week, Downs is down, Jenks looks jenky, Frank-Frank is a baby sneeze away from another stint on the DL, I fully expect Lindstrom to get back in the closer picture within two weeks and Nathan seems about as safe as they come and yet, he’s still just a closer. Look at the ground with your forward facing eyes and put some drops in the eyes in the back of your head. In other words, don’t settle in. Sleep is the cousin of death. 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?
Please, blog, may I have some more?Lastings Milledge is about to get called up by the Pirates (We’re not your Pops’ Pirates!) and he should get playing time. Shoot, I could prolly get playing time with the Pirates. Is this still the head case that the Mets and Nats gave up on? Sure. Luckily, the rap scene in Pittsburgh is about as happening as Poughkeepsie’s and there’s no chance Milledge will high-five a fan after a homer, because, well, the Pirates have no fans. Lastings Milledge can give you a two month stretch that looks remarkably similar to what Beltran has done over the last two months, or he can give you a two month streak where he looks like what Beltran should’ve done for the last two months. Will Milledge suddenly be 10 team worthy? Check yo projections at the door. I don’t know. His 2nd half last year was hella strong. (Yo and hella were requests of the 18-29 test audience). So Milledge can give you a ten team worthy outfielder and that’s worth a flier in every league. Anyway, here’s some more players to buy or sell this week in fantasy baseball:
BUY
Ty Wigginton – Hit a homer on Thursday. Know how many homers he hit last August? 12. Why does he get hot in August? I don’t know. Maybe his moon sign coalesces well with August’s sun sign. Whatever the case. Pick him up in deep leagues and monitor him closely in 12 team or shallower.
Please, blog, may I have some more?George Sherrill was traded from the Orioles to the Dodgers. Sherrill will backup Broxton. If you play in a league with Holds, by all means. If you don’t, you can lose him. Okay, that’s that. Now for the interesting part, who closes for the Orioles? Personally, I think it’s going to be Jim Johnson. I said him in last week’s Buy/Sell and he’s the same name I’m saying now. Johnson’s been owning the 8th inning setup duties for a while now, though he’s also given up runs in 3 of his last 4 appearances. So who else could it be? Could it be Baez? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind… Danys Baez was a donkey-corn back in 2005 for the Rays, collecting 41 Saves and posting a 2.86 ERA. So he’s capable, but the Orioles seem likely to give Johnson the first shot. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Brandon Webb – Suffered a setback.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Roy Oswalt pulled something in his back and is presumably headed to the DL. The bad news here is he was supposedly a 2nd half pitcher in some people’s minds, though my mind wasn’t yet made up. It’s a guy’s prerogative to change his mind, or just not make it up at all. As someone who has struggled with lower back pain for most of his adult life… Oh, who am I kidding? I’m fit as a fiddle. I once dwarf bowled a 170. (Of course, he helped by kicking over that 7-10 split.) Wait, what was I saying? Oh, yeah! Oswalt. Yeah, he’s off to see a back specialist, the Astros are calling up Bud Norris, hopefully related to Chuck. Bud Norris might sound familiar to some of youse. Why? Cause I just said his name in the previous sentence. Hello, Mr.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
