I
thought we’d mix up this week’s schedule a bit. If
you are
still playing fantasy baseball this morning, you are likely playing for
a
championship and trust me, everything counts (more on that later in the
week).
Normally
we look at the closers on Thursdays, but this week
I am going to do that today to give you two extra days to use any info
that may
be of use to you. The
big bullpen news this week comes out of Texas where C.J. Wilson seems to
have resumed the
closers role after a rough run by Joaquin
Benoit in which
Benoit blew 2- for -3 save opps. Wilson
becomes the best bet for save opps the rest of the
way, but in the long term, manager Ron Washington said this week that
he felt
the team needs a veteran presence at the end of the bullpen, indicating
that
he’s not confident that some combination of Benoit and/or
Wilson is not what he
wants to be looking at next summer. That also may be an indication that
the
club does not believe Akinori
Otsuka
is a very viable option for next year either. At the very least it
means they
are not sure whether Otsuka is part of their plans. Yesterday
Wes
Littleton (3-2-2,
4.47) collected his second save of the season against the
Angels working a perfect 9th in a 8-7
win. This appears to be
situational with both Benoit and Wilson having worked 3 of the last 4
days, but
it muddies the rest of the week. Littleton’s
other save was perhaps the cheapest in fantasy baseball history as he
collected
a 3-inning save in the Rangers’ 30-3 win on August 22nd.
The
Yankees on the other hand may be looking a potential
closing candidate in Joba
Chamberlain.
With Mo Rivera as yet
unsigned
beyond this season, it is easy to envision such a scenario. Still,
I’m not
buying it. The Yankees will throw money at their closing slot, whether
that
means extending Mo or not. Beyond that, Joba has much more value to the
Yankees
as a starter going forward and it seems unlikely they would devalue him
with a
role change. Joe Torre suggested yesterday that this was a possibility
although
he is the only one in the Yankees brass publicly admitting the
possibility is
on the radar.
All
of that having been said however, it is hard to ignore
that we said all of the same things about the Red Sox and Jonathan
Papelbon. It needs
to be noted however that in each of the
last two winters, the Sox spent much of the offseason working on the
assumption
that they would have a closer that was not Papelbon. Meanwhile
the Yankees have suspended their infamous Joba
Rules for the duration, setting up Chamberlain to set up Rivera in the
postseason.
The
two other bullpens in flux are in San
Francisco and Baltimore.
The Giants continue to use Brian Wilson
as their closer. We have talked about him in our last two editions.
He’s is
still poaching very favorable BHIP% (.189) and Strand% (88.9%) rates
but his
1-1-6, 0.84, 0.80 line is impressive enough to the Giants that rumbling
indicate they may lean on him throughout the offseason and enter the
spring
with Wilson as their closer. Personally,
I think his 5.4/9 K rate makes him less viable as a closing option,
even with
his 2.1 GB ratio this season. Even that GB rate is a bit inflated and I
don’t
think Brian can be objectively evaluated until that rate and his BHIP%
and
Strand% return to some sort of normalcy, or at least until we have more
evidence he can maintain above average numbers in the longer term. In
the short
term Brian closed out his 6th save of
the season Sunday and he is
the man in San Francisco
for the remainder of the season.
The
end results of elbow injuries to both Chris Ray and Danys Baez is that Jamie
Walker is the
Orioles closer. He is a 50-50 proposition at this point, just
6- for -12 in save opps, but if every save counts for you, Walker will
likely see the bulk of the opps
for the Orioles this week. Chad Bradford is still Plan B and he remains
a
long-shot save possibility this week.
The Orioles will not go into next spring with Walker as their
top closing candidate. Expect
them to address saves in the free agent market this winter.
And
the Blue Jays’ closer situation has not quite
deteriorated into a job share yet, but Casey
Janssen was called
on for 4 outs yesterday to finish up the Jay’s 4-1 win
over the Yankees. He was in control and the Jays let him run with
Bombers in
the 9th. Jeremy
Accardo
remains the Jay’s primary closer but Janssen could very well
vulture another
save opp before the end of the season.
Elsewhere,
it is hard to believe the Astros will not shut Brad Lidge down at
some point, and
soon. He gave up three runs yesterday to blow a save against the
Cardinals and
take the loss. If you haven’t already taken our advice and
landed Chad Qualls before
this, now would be a
good time to do it.
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