Saves can often come from little known sources. That concept is something we Razzballers call SAGNOF – Saves Ain’t Got No Face. I played in one RCL (Razzball Commenter League) last year and in that league I owned Sean Doolittle from Sunday March 30th until the last day of the season. I didn’t draft him. I picked him up because I was looking for someone that could help with ERA and WHIP as well as adding some additional Ks (the latter of which can’t be bolstered through extra starting pitchers because of the games started limit) and his projections indicated he was worth it. I didn’t really care about whether he was going to contribute any saves because I had David Robertson, Steve Cishek, and a DL’d Aroldis Chapman which seemed like a good group for a 12-team league.
Now here’s a stat line for you: 11.2 IP, 8 ER, 14 H, 0 BB, 6.17 ERA, 13 K, 1 SV
Those are Sean Doolittle’s April 2014 numbers. He was terrible (but in the best possible way). The primary reason that line looks so bad is because on April 26th he gave up 4 hits and 4 earned runs without recording an out. Of course I dropped him after that outing. Umm, no. I mean of course I DID NOT drop him after that outing. It would have been an overreaction for me to judge a player based on one outing. Plus the K/BB ratio told me it was at least somewhat fluky and by this time Jim Johnson had already crashed and burned as the A’s closer leaving the spot up for grabs. The rest is history. (His final 2014 stat line: 2.73 ERA, 22 SV, 89 K, 0.73 WHIP).
It’s with all of that in mind that I bring you this list of relievers to consider acquiring. These are all non-closers, although most of them are the next guy up should a closer falter. Along with the names I’ve given you the ownership % in RCLs, the current closer for their team and my rating: two numbers on a scale of 1-10. The number before the slash in the rating represents a projections based judgment of the quality of the pitcher in question, and by the way, if you are the type that likes algorithm generated projections our tools might be for you. The number after the slash represents how good his situation is, which involves some guesswork by me, but it’s basically a combination of the quality and durability of the current closer, and the likelihood that the reliever in question can permanently assume the closer role. If you don’t really need saves but you could use a reliever to bolster your ERA, WHIP, and K then lean heavily on the pitcher quality rating. If you are desperate for saves then consider the situation rating.
- Danny Farquhar SEA (54%/Rodney) 9/6
- Joakim Soria DET (73%/Nathan) 5/7
- Sergio Romo SF (75%/Casilla) 7/5
- Tony Watson PIT (63%/Melancon) 8/3
- Joe Smith LAA (29%/Street) 5/6
- Jordan Walden STL (10%/Rosenthal) 7/4
- Adam Ottavino COL (25%/Hawkins) 5/6
- Darren O’Day BAL (19%/Britton) 6/5
- Jason Grilli ATL (2%/Kimbrel) 8/2
- Pedro Strop CHC (2%/Rondon) 6/4
- Jeurys Familia NYM (29%/Mejia) 4/5
- Aaron Loup TOR (2%/Cecil) 3/5
- Casey Fien MIN (0%/Perkins) 5/3
- Kevin Quackenbush SD (75%/Benoit) 4/3
- Kyuji Fujikawa TEX (0%/Feliz) 2/5
I think the number one takeaway from this is you should be dropping Quackenbush for one of the top 5 players on the list, as one of them is certainly available. Quackenbush fans: Don’t hate me, hate the projections (3.76 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 55K) because that’s why I’m hating on Quackenbush. Or you can just say screw the projections. It’s up to you. At the opposite end of the “projections surprise” would be Jason Grilli, he of the 4.00 ERA and 1.33 WHIP last year. This year he’s projected for 2.96/1.14 to go along with 58.7 strikeouts… Hmmm. (Update: with the Kimbrel trade it looks like Grilli is no longer the next line, he’s the closer).
For more info on the current closers see Smokey’s Closer Report. Finally, here’s a short list of players that are 100% owned that should probably stay that way, at least for now: Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller, Ken Giles and Wade Davis.
Now onto the speedsters where we have a breaking SAGNOF related development. Center fielder Melvin Upton was just traded from the Braves to the Padres. The Braves received center fielder Cameron Maybin as part of the deal. This probably does not help Eric Young Jr. I would expect there to be a platoon of some sort between the two, but even though Maybin bats right, he doesn’t hit left handers particularly well so who knows how the platoon will work. Obviously I’m expecting more playing time for Young than Maybin (at least for now).
Coco Crisp is going to be out for at least six weeks due to surgery on his elbow. By the time he comes back to full health he will almost certainly be worth picking up because all the other MLB injuries will have depleted the overall depth of the league. For now, either DL him or drop him.
On the plus side, the injury frees up the exciting speedster Billy Burns to receive more playing time in the A’s outfield and he’s ownable right now in 12 team leagues. If you are wondering what he can do, think Billy Hamilton lite or perhaps Dee Gordon. I’m not saying run out and get him but if you can afford to stash a guy to see what happens he might be as good a stash as any.
Jace Peterson appears to have nailed down significant playing time (a platoon with Phillip Gosselin is likely) at 2B for the Braves and he also qualifies at SS in both ESPN and Yahoo. Like Burns I consider him mainly a guy to stash. It all depends on your style and if you have a player you can easily give up for him. He’ll need to hit to stay up but if he does, expect about 25 steals for the season.
Micah Johnson looks like the primary second baseman for the White Sox for the time being. He profiles as slightly better than Jace Peterson but he might have a shorter leash due to worse defense. If you invest in Burns, Peterson or Johnson hope the BABIP gods favor them because any of them could be sent back down.
Nori Aoki is totally boring yet totally usable. He may not steal 25 bases because he’s more of a player with speed than a speedy player but he should steal 20 or so. His end of season player rater value will probably end up being better than most of the other players on this list.
Oh, and last week I said Everth Cabrera would be an every day fantasy starter if he were a regular starter in the “real” game, and now he is, at least while JJ Hardy is on the disabled list. And please keep your eyes on Jose Ramirez, he’s 0% owned in RCLs yet projects almost exactly the same as Danny Santana on a per plate appearance basis.
