Well, the demise of the active leader in career saves has happened. I can remember the days when he burst on the scene all wide-eyed and rally monkey backed. That, unfortunately, was a dogs age in closer years. Hell, most closers now a days are judged by weeks instead of years. I personally don’t wanna think that he is completely done closing, but I think that he is done closing with the tigers (barring an injury or three). So now it is the Justin Wilson show. He is no stranger to high-leverage spots as he has been a critical holds guy for the past three years. For comparison’s sake, think Tony Watson type of reliever… they even came up together with the Pirates to boot. So the main question is will Wilson continue as such as the Tigers closer? I say why not. Joe Jimenez isn’t ready for prime time yet, or they don’t wanna throw the reigns on him yet. The team has looked mediocre, and sorta old. So alleviating Wilson to the closer role does two things: Makes their best reliever in the bullpen the closer, and it gives him even more trade value should the Tigers fall out of the race and eventually sell of some pieces. Saves are ownable everywhere, and this doesn’t appear to be a committee type thing, so if you own him good on ya. Let’s see what else is going down on Save Street lately…
- A clot takes down the Familia. Reed-ing is fundamental again.
- Zach Britton is down again. Brad Brach should be the go to man there with Darren O’day and Mychal Givens maybe getting mixed in now and again. Brach has the reliever goods and should be a top-15 closer ’til Zach is on the attack again.
- Similar thing in the land of Giants. melancon is on the DL, but not as long as Britton. So insert a committee of Derek Law and Hunter Strickland. Law saw his first taste as the closer not go so well as he allowed 2 ER and didn’t look very confident. It is going to be a this or that type switch there, both guys are ownable in the Zelda type quest for saves.
- Shawn Kelley and Koda Glover race to get healthy and insert themselves into the Matt Albers, Enny Romero and Blake Treinen mix. Dusty is going to Dusty. I am recommending avoid the Nats closer switch until further notice.
- Seung-Hwan Oh has settled in. Breath. Though we could do with more K’s fool!
- The A’s seem to have put the cap more on Santiago Casilla then anyone else. Rendering all others is useless. Just for giggles, keep an eye on the usage of Bobby Wahl.
- Reliever of interest this week is Josh Fields for the Dodgers.
$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. Kenley Jansen – (Sergio Romo, Pedro Baez)
2. Aroldis Chapman – (Dellin Betances, Tyler Clippard)
3. Craig Kimbrel – (Heath Hembree, Matt Barnes)
Donkeycorns
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 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 Donkeycorns.
4. Ken Giles – (Luke Gregerson, Chris Devenski)
5. Cody Allen – (Andrew Miller, Bryan Shaw)
6. Greg Holland – (Adam Ottavino, Mike Dunn)
7. Wade Davis – (Hector Rondon, Koji Uehara, Pedro Strop)
8. Edwin Diaz – (Nick Vincent, Dan Altavilla)
9. Seung-Hwan Oh – (Trevor Rosenthal, Matt Bowman)
10. Kelvin Herrera – (Joakim Soria, Mike Minor, Matt Strahm)
11. David Robertson – (Tommy Kahnle, Anthony Swarzak)
12. Alex Colome – (Danny Farquhar, Chase Whitley, Austin Pruitt)
13. Matt Bush – (Jeremy Jeffress, Keone Kela)
14. Roberto Osuna – (Jason Grilli, Ryan Tepera)
15. A.J. Ramos– (Brad Ziegler, Kyle Barraclough)
16. Tony Watson – (Juan Nicasio, Felipe Rivero)
17. Brad Brach – (Darren O’Day, Mychal Givens)
Employed
These guys are the men that make the save market go round. They punch in, punch out. Have the job, no real threat to speak of, and are basically just there to collect great benny’s so they can take care of their crippled brother. Who is only really crippled because he is scared of the sun.
18. Jim Johnson – (Arodys Vizcaino, Jose Ramirez)
19. Brandon Kintzler – (Ryan Pressly, Matt Belisle)
20. Neftali Feliz – (Corey Knebel, Jacob Barnes)
21. Brandon Maurer – (Carter Capps – DL, Ryan Buchter, Brad Hand)
Brain Freezes
I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing apples, bananas and Carlos Marmol– Wait, he just gave up 12 earned runs and hit Castro in the head with a pick-off throw. Brain freeze! Make it stop! Use the following closers at your own risk.
22. Justin Wilson – (Alex Wilson, Shane Greene)
23. Addison Reed – (Hansel Robles, Fernando Salas)
24. Bud Norris – (Blake Parker, David Hernandez)
25. Hunter Strickland /Derek Law
26. Hector Neris – (Joaquin Benoit, Edubray Ramos)
27. Santiago Casilla – (Ryan Madson, Ryan Dull)
28. Shawn Kelley / Blake Treinen / Matt Albers / Koda Glover
29. Raisel Iglesias – (Drew Storen , Michael Lorenzen)
30. Fernando Rodney – (J.J. Hoover, Archie Bradley)
