Closer Report, Week 9 – Jazzy Jeff And Will The Thrill
June 4, 2016 | Closers, Middle Relievers | 29 Commentsby: Smokey
Situations arise all the time with closers. Injuries occur, poor performance, and then the return of the incumbent. In the preseason, Will Smith was the guy the Brewers had tabbed as the closer. Then, like I just said, an injury happened. So now that he is back, what goes on in the back-end of the Brewers bullpen? Jeremy Jeffress has done a stellar job with a less than average set-up crew in front of him. He has pitched to a 2.45 ERA and a slightly more bloated xFIP of 3.41. For all his previous tangles with pitching, he is striking out far less then he is normally accustomed to at just a 6 K/9 rate. Low for a closer, even from the Lauvern and Shirley state. He has managed 14 saves in 15 opportunitioes, and for a team like the Brewers, 14 is a healthy total. So does his reign come to an end now that the best reliever is back in the fray? Granted, it is never a great thing when usual mop-up relievers start stealing your stats, namely Blaine Boyer and Carlos Torres, who have 3 saves between them in the past nine games. And granted, saves are wonky and games dictate them sometimes, come from behind wins, and situational loogy-ness are also a factor. So I think with the way Jeffress has been going, he stays there until Will comes and steals his mojo and never looks back… Until the trade deadline, which could alter things up completely and basically revert it back to the way it was. So if Will Smith is on your waivers, do yourself a service and add him speculatively for a week or two. If he doesn’t give you the returns that you expect, then, well, the opposite happened of what I think should happen. Enjoy Week 9 of the fantasy baseball season’s closer report!
Please, blog, may I have some more?
