Trade Away Your Closers
April 10, 2008
Category: Buy Low, Sell High
Francisco Rodriguez went down with an injury. JJ Putz went down with an injury. Eric Gagne went down on his ‘trainer’ and asked for more ‘roids because he’s looked like crap ever since he stopped taking them. Closers come and go but one thing remains the same, you need saves. Now the best thing you can do is let go of what you paid at a draft and try and focus on value. This is even more pronounced with closers because they are really only as good as the saves they are getting you. So my advice is forget where you drafted your closers and begin to trade them away.
TRADE these closers NOW:
Brandon Lyon - I’m not saying trade him for Cristian Guzman, but you should try and get someone that can help your team, because soon Lyon won’t help at all. In his save yesterday, he looked like taco diarrhea. Blake DeWitt nearly hit a home run, Mark Sweeney(!) hit a bullet to Drew and Andruw Jones struckout on a ball three feet outside of the strike zone. Grab Pena, trade Lyon. You’re welcome.
Eric Gagne - He may not have value for too much longer. Get what you can. Riske and Turnbow haven’t looked much better, you say. Yeah, but this will be a headache all season. You should get out now with some value.
Rafael Soriano - He’s already on the DL. See if someone believes he can come back and stay healthy, because I don’t.
Huston Street - He’ll be sitting on your DL in June and you’ll be like, “Grey told me to trade him back in April. Man, I should’ve listened.” Every day you wake up and look at your team, you should expect Street to be on your DL, that’s a problem.
George Sherrill - Probably not a better sell high guy right now. If you trade him today, you might already have a quarter of his season’s saves. Trade this guy before this weekend while he’s still has peak value.
Jose Valverde - Last year he had a great year, before that he was a Croser (crappy closer). He doesn’t really have anyone breathing down his neck to take over but that doesn’t mean he can’t blow a bunch of saves.
Kerry Wood - Trade him while he’s still the closer. For Christmas sake, he gave up a home run to Jason Bay! Either an injury or lack of success is going to get the best (or worse) of him.
Brian Wilson - If you can even get anything for this guy, I’ll be impressed.
Chad Cordero - Trade him before he comes back and reveals that he’s still not healthy.
JJ Putz - He could be this year’s BJ Ryan. News sounds okay coming out about his rehab, so why not trade him before he re-injures himself?
DON’T TRADE any of these questionable closers (unless the deal is just too good to pass up of course).
Joe Borowski, Matt Capps, Brad Lidge, Todd Jones, Trevor Hoffman, Jeremy Accardo, Jason Isringhausen, Joakim Soria, Kevin Gregg, Troy Percival and last, and kinda least, CJ Wilson - If you can, trade Joe Nathan and somebody for Alexis Rios and one of these closers. The Indians don’t care that Borowski is hurting your fantasy team. They’re not replacing him. As I said a few days ago, Hoffman is not going anywhere. Matt Capps is fine. Brad Lidge, while a basket case, is not losing the job to Gordon. Todd Jones sucks dog balls, but he’s the closer. Whatever, you just want saves.
All other closers? They’re all tradable (in fact, everyone is for the right price). Papelbon? Try and get Miguel Cabrera. Francisco Rodriguez? I’m not that worried about this injury, but if someone’s making the right offer, pull the trigger.
![[Bloglines]](http://razzball.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://razzball.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://razzball.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Mixx]](http://razzball.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/mixx.png)
![[Reddit]](http://razzball.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/reddit.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://razzball.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://razzball.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Email]](http://razzball.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Tags: B.J. Ryan, Brad Lidge, Brandon Lyon, Brian Wilson, Chad Cordero, CJ Wilson, Eric Gagne, Francisco Rodriguez, George Sherrill, J.J. Putz, Jason Isringhausen, Jeremy Accardo, Joakim Soria, Joe Borowski, Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon, Jose Valverde, Kerry Wood, Kevin Gregg, Matt Capps, Rafael Soriano, Todd Jones, Trevor Hoffman
Film was shot here with lots of local cast and crew, was...
April 10th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
My ignorance will probably be apparent as I say this, but I wonder how many of these guys are going to fail health-wise because they have stopped taking ‘roids. Not to say they DID of course.
Carol’s last blog post..iPentimento Will Be Featured Tomorrow
No question is too small, especially one about steroids. Closers need to recover the quickest of any pitcher so I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all dopers.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Hey Grey,
Who’s next in line to get saves with SF, is it Walker or Hennessey?
Thanks,
C
April 10th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
my closers to start the season were Soriano, Sherill, Lyon, Gagne….. i already traded Sherill and Lyon for Capps… now im thinkin about offering Soriano and Gagne for Soria…. that would leave me with Capps and Soria as my closers….think its worth the 2 for 1?
I’d say Walker will end the season with the most on that team. Probably about 12 to 15.
That team is doomed to lose 100 games. I’ve watched them the last couple nights to see Velez (who doesn’t look good) and they might score less than 4 runs a game 9 out of ten times.
@Mike — Soriano and Gagne for Soria is very solid trade. I’d do that.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
I was in the middle of writing something similiar myself…I think Papelbon has to be at the pinnacle of closer value right now. I mean with the overall shittiness of closers and his supposed draft day equal in Putz down for the count it makes sense that in a redraft he’d go in the 2nd or 3rd round.
Sherrill won’t garnish much just because of the lack of rep he has, but a guy like Papelbon could net you something that would have been unfathomable 2 weeks ago.
SportsHubris’s last blog post..Can We Free Tibet and the Olympic Torch?
April 10th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Great minds think alike!
Grey’s last blog post..Trade Away Your Closers
April 10th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
It is too much for me to keep up with, I can’t believe you all can. Still I love baseball so this site gets an A+ from me.
Keep up the good work GO CARDS!!!
I had to add that you can’t blame a girl for supporting the BEST team ever lol
Rachel
The Baked Blogger
Check out our exclusive look at LaRussa’s new book:
http://razzball.com/exclusive-excerpt-from-tony-larussa-book-tonyball/
Go bake!
April 11th, 2008 at 12:46 am
How in the hell did Rich Hill sport a 8.45 K/9 ratio last year? I’m watching this guy pitch tonight and he couldn’t get guys out in my old senior beer league with his blazing 88 mph fastball and flat curve. God why does only fantasy baseball bring out the Incredible Hulk in me? HULK SMASH!
I just about Hulk smashed my TV…They almost pushed his start to Friday because the Pirates hit lefties well. I wish they would’ve. FCUK!
And now Heilman blew Maine’s win. Ugh.
April 11th, 2008 at 2:55 am
I don’t see Putz reinjuring himself. He didn’t hurt his elbow or shoulder, it was kind of a freak thing in his ribs. Everything I’ve read about such injuries is that there are no lingering effects once healed.. at all.. ever.
BBT Jon’s last blog post..4-6
April 11th, 2008 at 4:02 am
let’s all say it together…Rich Hill will be ok…Rich Hill will be ok…Rich Hill will be ok…
April 11th, 2008 at 4:16 am
^I foolishly have Rich Hill in two leagues.
I don’t feel good about that.
BBT Jon’s last blog post..4-6
April 11th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Did Hill just lose his spot to John Lieber?
Hoodlumman’s last blog post..Nice work, Florida!
Ugh. Hopefully Piniella comes to his senses.
April 17th, 2008 at 11:42 am
[...] Hoffman - Last week, I advised you trade for him and I’m saying the same now. Maybe I’ll say more of the same next week. Oh, happy [...]