Eric Gagne

[swarmee]

I'm just curious why does he help out little in ERA and WHIP. If he throws three innings in a week with no earned runs isn't his era 0. doesn't that help? Or i am just forgetting something?

Well, if he throws 3 innings with 0 ER, it would have a minimal effect on a team which already has an ERA of 4.05 with 40 innings. Now the team would have an ERA of 3.77, not changing as much as it would in a straight Roto league where you generally get 180 IP per starter, and would get about 65 IP out of a top reliever. It's not that he doesn't help out in HTH matchups, it's that it's a smaller improvement than in regular Roto leagues. His low ERA/WHIP helps much more when they're a higher percentage of the innings accrued by the team. And in an HTH league (where a lot of owners sacrifice the ratio categories by inserting the starter of the day) a closer would generally account for that lowered IP %.
With Gagne's poor offense, it's possible that there will be weeks that he will not get a save opportunity as well. That would kill you if you spent a 2nd round pick on a reliever and he didn't even pitch in some weeks. Was it Smoltz last year that didn't have a save opportunity in a two-week span (not due to injury)?

[SoxFanPJ]

in a 10 team H2H, I see Gagne going either 2.10 or 3.1, basically to team drafting in the #1 slot, back to back picks, they could grab Arod first, then a stud OF like Maggs and Gagne back to back.

Not neccessarily where I would take him, but atleast you don't have to worry about Bob Wickman keeping his job.