This is my first time drafting fantasy baseball and I noticed that a lot of people put emphasis on getting and stocking up on closers. My problem is... I didn't realize how important they were until after the draft when I noticed a huge run on relief pitchers near the middle/end of the draft. The average person in my league has around 4 closers, when I only got one. If my starters and batting are okay to good, in a 5x5 roto league with 25 players, should I bother trading to get more saves or just focus on the other categories?
Here is my team: C: Victor Martinez 1B: Mark Teixeira 2B: Dustin Pedroia 3B: Adrian Beltre SS: Derek Jeter 1B/3B: James Loney 2B/SS: Erick Aybar OF: Andre Ethier, Johnny Damon, Adam Dunn, Alex Rios, J.D. Drew, Nolan Reimold, Cody Ross UT: Ryan Theriot
SP: Roy Halladay, Josh Johnson, Scott Baker, Chad Billingsley, Roy Oswalt, Gavin Floyd, Hiroki Kuroda, Stephen Strasburg RP: K-Rod, Ryan Madson
Well, you will be able to pick up saves off the waiver wire as the season progresses, you just need to be aggressive about identifying and adding the right guys. That takes the form of guys who grab a full time closer role when someone else gets injured (or just sucks too much) but it can also be from short term adds when an established closer misses a week or two, or the occasional vulture save from a set-up guy who's pitching behind a closer that a team won't pitch too many days in a row.
How many players in your league and does your league have any bench slots and/or DL slots? Both can affect how you approach things.
Fenris-77 wrote:Well, you will be able to pick up saves off the waiver wire as the season progresses, you just need to be aggressive about identifying and adding the right guys. That takes the form of guys who grab a full time closer role when someone else gets injured (or just sucks too much) but it can also be from short term adds when an established closer misses a week or two, or the occasional vulture save from a set-up guy who's pitching behind a closer that a team won't pitch too many days in a row.
How many players in your league and does your league have any bench slots and/or DL slots? Both can affect how you approach things.
Meh, I'd leave the Toronto clsoer situation alone for now. If you're going to speculate, Downs is the best pitcher who's got a chance, but I'd be willing to bet we see Gregg get a try first.
Ok, 3 bench slots and one DL slot. Who's in the DL slot and who's on the bench (currently). I'm just not entirely sure from your opening post how many and what sort of active slots your rosters actually have. It's roto, and with a short bench, so you probably don't want to carry more than one bench hitter if you can manage it - give the rest of the slots to pitching. You can use them to speculate on relievers, but you're also giving one over to stash Strasburg, so you don't have a lot of slots to work with.
Could you give me rundown of which RPs are available on the WW? Plus maybe take at this list and see if any of the 'next in line' guys are available? Feel free to take a look for any of the usual early hype SPs too - Latos, Slowey, Matusz, ect.
For clarification, active slots are 9 Pitchers (any), C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 1B/3B, 2B/3B, 5 outfielders, 1 utility, 3 bench. Right now on waivers only guerrier is available from the link you gave me. My bench consists of a rotation of Cody Ross, JD Drew, and Ryan Theriot right now. Also, should I try to trade another team for a closer or is it too early?
Saves is probably one of the easiest categories to try and pick up later. That said, there are plenty of Roto strategies that suggest punting saves or SB's that have played out in the past. I wouldn't make a one sided trade so early just to try and get more saves. Instead, watch the waiver wire closely (which is always the best way to win at Roto).
Picking saves is certainly possible, but it's only easy in a league that's not very competitive. If you're playing with competent and active managers you can pretty much guarantee that saves is the one category that everyone is watching the wire for, so the rush to add new closers is pretty fierce.
That said, the advice to not make a one sided trade is spot on. It's not too early to trade for a closer, but it's always to early to over-pay for one. If there happens to be a guy in your league who's over stocked and willing to trade off a half-decent closer for a reasonable price then go ahead. Mostly that won't be the case though, since most everyone knows to put a premium on saves in a trade. I think an easier approach is to pay just as much attention to trends and hype in general. If you can grab a guy (at whatever position) off the wire who's getting a ton of positive press you may find it a little easier to deal for a closer when you have some hype on your side - the hype cancels out the closer premium (sometimes ).
Given your scoring system (which only caps games started, not innings pitched) I would say that you could use another RP of some sort, since that'll get you more counting stats without messing with your GS totals. If saves aren't available maybe think about adding a good middle relief type who's got a high K/9 and good ratios. Maybe just filter the available pitchers by 2009 stats and Ks and see if any of the relievers left look interesting. Make sure you do a little research to find out if their riole is the same this year of course.
You're going to be hurting until Strasburg gets called up anyway, but you can limit the damage.
One option is to do a little streaming with one or both of your bench slots (assuming Starsburg isn't getting dropped). That's where you add and drop guys constantly to maximize games played. The focus is on adding guys with favourable matchups. You'll get more value out a streamed slot than by holding on to a mediocre hitter for example. You can also pick and choose on the pitching as well, which is helpful when a lot of guys are only good on one half of a split (only good at home, or whatever). Streaming is more work for you, especially if you're actually paying close attention to matchups but it will pay off. The trick with streaming is iming the drop adds right, but it's not hard, just labour intensive compared to a set it and forget it approach.
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by fangthe7th » Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:35 am 
If you're going to speculate, Downs is the best pitcher who's got a chance, but I'd be willing to bet we see Gregg get a try first.
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