It’s time to take our beginning of the month look at all the major league closers. Some closer battles have not been squared away yet. The Cubs are still holding Gregg over Marmol’s head, the Cards are still reluctant to say Perez, the A’s might split duties between Devine and Ziegler and the Mariners are looking forward to 2010. Personally, I think the Cubs will split Marmol and Gregg 75/25, taking a little value away from Marmol and adding a lot of value to Gregg. If Gregg gets any saves, he’s worth a spot on your roster. I think Devine should and will be the closer for the majority of the year. I think the Cards will go with Perez out of the gate and he’ll be the closer for the majority of the year. Though his leash will be short, making Motte a good late flier. Other good late fliers for the MR.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Joey Devine
No, this is not the bottom of the Top 20 2009 fantasy baseball rankings barrel. No, next we’re not going to do the Top 20 Guys Who Will Have The Most Balks. Chillax. It’s one post. The only fantasy baseballers (<–my Mom’s phrase) that seem to pay attention to Middle Relievers are those that play in a Holds league. This is 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 Aaron Harang last year and he mistook your team’s ERA for his toilet, but you also had Waking Joey Devine. With just Harang, you had the unsightly dump of a 4.78 ERA. With Devine and his brand new toilet brush, you had a 3.95 ERA. Voila, snitches! If you also carried Brad Ziegler, you had a combined 3.36 ERA. Not to mention, you had saves when Ziegler took over for Street. 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 2009 fantasy baseball:
1.
Please, blog, may I have some more?It’s time to take our beginning of the month look at all the major league closers. Before we get to that, I want to clear up a potential misconception. Donkey-corns are not the only closers I’ll draft for my 2009 fantasy team. I’ll more than happily draft closers from the Brain Freeze category. Cause, see, I’m a save vulture. It is what it is. I’ll take saves from anywhere, except probably from the $12 Salad category. I think those guys are great. I just don’t believe in paying for saves. I said “probably” because at the right draft spot, everyone’s worth looking at it. Some of these closing jobs aren’t finalized just yet. That wouldn’t stop me from grabbing both guys if I had room and the price were right. Just because everyone thinks Brandon Lyon should be the closer doesn’t mean Fernando Rodney has no place on a team until Leyland makes a formal announcement. Anyway, here’s all of the closers for your 2009 fantasy baseball draft, 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.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Phew. The 2009 fantasy baseball rankings come to a semi-close with the top 20 closers for 2009. (I say semi-close, cause I will tweak them from time to time and I’m going to have a top 100 and 300 overall soon too.) The top 20 closers are a bit different than all of the other lists. The closers on the top of this list you should not draft and there are closers that aren’t on this list that you should be targeting. The 2009 projections are a bit wonky too since you can’t predict how many saves a closer is going to get. I mean, you just can’t. To the point where some well-respected projections…ers don’t even attempt to. Saves come down to opportunity. Also, I’ll have a separate post shortly for every team’s closer. For a broad idea of where players are in relation to each other, see the 2009 Fantasy Baseball Player Rater. Anyway, here’s the top 20 closers for 2009 fantasy baseball:
1.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Delmon Young has 7 home runs for the season, but 3 in the last seven games. Mouth on the left side of the screen says, “Tor-.” Mouth on the right side of the screen says, “-rid.” …Torrid. Capital T, lowercase -orrid.
Please, blog, may I have some more?What you say, you need fantasy baseball sleepers for 2008? You’re looking to get some value at your fantasy draft. Yeah, you and every other schmohawk who’s reading this. Luckily, there’s enough crap out there to distract enough people. So here’s a quick breakdown of 2008 fantasy baseball sleepers for every position.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Take Alex Rodriguez with your first pick. He performs half of what you expect from him and you’re pissed, but it won’t lose you your league. Take Nomar with your last pick and he gives you nothing. Also, you may not lose your league.
Please, blog, may I have some more?