Closers - the kickers of fantasy baseball

[Guest]

This post has got me thinkin? I am in a 6 x6 roto yahoo league and my three closers are Mike Williams, Scott Williamson, and Kelvim Escobar (with Robert Person on DL in hopes that he will win the Sox closing job). Maybe I should basically forfeit the save category every week and trade away my closers for better starting pitching or positional players. Although, closers do help the ERA, WHIP, and K/BB

[Super GM]

you must have Rob nen and or Benitez for your closer this year. In which case i see why you are so upset. Probably had Rocker last year too.

I was thinkin the same thing. You might wanna add Matt Anderson of the Detroit Tigers to that list. I don't think he'll get any save opps at all this year!

[sinicalypse]

well, kickers are menial contributions at best... they're like, 6-15 points per game and a studly offense with 2 productive RBs, a top tier QB, and good receivers ought to cover it. hell, if you've got a TE like bubba franks, that usually covers a kicker.

saves are a different animal altogether. i see them like casting a net in a sea of baseball and trying to net as many saves as possible. plus, unlike kickers, the turnover ratio for closers is perhaps the best in fantasy baseball... every year i'd say 10 new people end up woth 15+ saves, usually off of the waiver wire or free agent pool. plus, since any team worth half a lick can win 70 games, this just makes the playing field that much more robust.

typically, i'll start a year off with 2-3 solid closers. the ones you draft. this season i targeted koch, mesa, foulke, and rivera. typically, you want teams that are around ,500 or better, and furthermore teams with scrappy offenses that can win those 8-6 type games. from there, if you wait, you can get the jorge julios off of wavers, braden looper, brandon lyon, rocky biddle, etc. or how about mike effin macdougal? so a savvy eye on the league can inform you as to who is going to get those save ops and who to cash in on. by now i've got 4 closers on each squad, and typically, if you use my strategy early, you won't NEED a closer down the stretch. saves are hard to specifically get. say, mid-season, you trade a solid bat for jose mesa... he might get 1 save in a week while matt anderson gets 4. in that aspect, yeah, its random.

but if you've got a bunch of players collecting early and never really TRY to get saves, rather just let them happen, then i think you're generally in good shape. in 3 leagues thus far, this strategy has amassed me 9. 19, and 13 saves. my goal is to not outsave certain closers, but to outcollect them. even if braden looper loses the job in june, i still might have 10-15 saves by then, and from there i can trade or find a new closer, say, vladimir nunez.

but yeah, i agree with the other guy, i think you're sour cuz the high priced closers have sucked, while mike macdougal and tim worrell rule the land. it makes you wanna kick yourself, eh?

oh and the other sucky thing is a closer implosion. mike williams gave up 3 or 4 runs to the cubs the other day, koch has had two 4 run blowups, benitez has given it up like an ugly prom date... so if you have 5 closers, odds are that each one of them will give up 4 or 5 runs in an inning, which does wonders for yourERA. a 4 run implosion can turn a shutout into a 5 or 6 ERA for the day.

[ramble2]

Good timing for this little nugget to be in the paper today:

Your leader in the clubhouse for Cheapest Save of the Year is just-recalled Cub Alan Benes, who nailed down a dramatic 16-3 win over the Reds on Thursday. But Benes isn't even in the top two in the cheapest-save-of-the-2000s competition.

The leaders in that derby: Willie Banks, who saved a 22-4 win for the Red Sox last July 23, and Todd Erdos, who saved a 16-1 game for the Padres on Aug. 22, 2000.

This illustrates what is perhaps the oddest part of the saves rule. Any reliever who pitches the final three innings of ANY win gets a save. That's why these guys are racking up saves in those games.

I suppose that could lead to another rule for searching for sleeper closers. Look for teams that routinely blow out their competition and have a reliever who they like to use as an inning eater in such situations.