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Fantasy Baseball Closers Roundup Week 6 – Britton, Osuna

May 11, 2018 By avanfossan Leave a Comment

Baltimore Orioles Zach Britton hopes to return from the 60-day DL in late May. Does he need the Orioles to trade him to a contender to make him one of the top fantasy baseball closers again?

The first week of May is in the books and what a May so far. We had a team no-hitter by the Los Angeles Dodgers using four pitchers versus the San Diego Padres in Monterrey, Mexico. That was the first ever MLB no-hitter thrown outside the U.S. or Canada. Albert Pujols recorded the 3,000th hit of his career. Coincidentally, those events both happened on the same day.

Then James Paxton of the Seattle Mariners, a Canadian, threw a no-no on his homeland turf at Rogers Centre against the Toronto Blue Jays. With these non-U.S. no-hitters, maybe the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees shouldn’t play two games in London, England next season.

Speaking of the team many think will represent the American League in the World Series, the Yankees flexed their muscle to the tune of winning nine of their last ten games and 17 of 18. That is… pretty good.

In fantasy baseball closers news, things are active on that front too. An elite closer could be returning from the DL soon to potentially be a big trade chip at the deadline or sooner.

Baltimore Orioles

Who is it, Brad Brach or Darren O’Day? Brach picked up a save against the Kansas City Royals Wednesday night to push his season total to four. O’Day has two saves on the season. Who is “the guy” for the Orioles?

Two things come to mind when looking at this situation. First, if Brach and O’Day are a team’s closers and they combine for six saves, the team isn’t very good. Thank you Captain Obvious.

Second, it’s a moot point when Zach Britton comes back at the end of May (he’s hopeful), as he should slot right back into his closer role. But will Britton even be around in June? The Orioles are quickly approaching sell-off mode, which was anticipated with their pending free agents and aging roster, if they aren’t competitive.

Holding on to Brach and O’Day could be worth it if Britton gets dealt. If you drafted Britton in the late rounds and stashed him, your patience may be rewarded soon whether he stays with the O’s or (hopefully for Britton owners like yours truly), is traded to a contender.

Milwaukee Brewers

Corey Knebel was activated this week after about a month stay on the DL. During his time on the shelf, Josh Hader really solidified himself as, at the very least, a lock down set up man. Hader has five saves and an unbelievable 46 strikeouts in 22 innings while also sporting an unheard of 0.50 WHIP. Hader is the real deal.

However, Knebel in 2017 had 39 saves and 126 strikeouts in 76 innings of work. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, manager Craig Counsel stated that Knebel won’t have a defined role, at least at first, when he comes back.

If I’m Craig Counsel, then I love this, even if Knebel is less than thrilled. No one likes losing their starting spot due to injury but unfortunately it happens. The Brewers have potentially two solid closer types who can not only flip-flop roles, but can get the big strikeout when you need it.

From a fantasy standpoint though, it’s a bear. Hader was on a roll in Knebel’s absence and one of the top pitching prospects in the Brewers organization. Knebel is making over $3 million a year while Hader is a little over $550k. The Brewers may decide that having that money invested in Knebel gives him the upper hand in retaining the closer role.

Bottom line, if you have one of the two, you may want to consider trading for the other one given the current uncertainty about who will be the primary closer (if there is one). Both are valuable, so hold either for the time being.

Toronto Blue Jays

Usually, I try to gear this article towards a little humor while offering fantasy baseball advice. The situation in Toronto with closer Roberto Osuna is not the least bit humorous.

According to CBC, Osuna was arrested Tuesday morning for assaulting his girlfriend and was immediately put on administrative leave by Major League Baseball. Osuna is not allowed to be around the team during his suspension.

Manager John Gibbons stated that he would go with a closer by committee approach. If I had to guess, I would say John Axford would be the main 9th inning guy for the Blue Jays. Although on Wednesday Axford appeared in the 7th of a tie ball game, Ryan Tepera pitched the 8th and Tyler Clippard the 9th, earning the save, striking out two and giving up one hit.

Extra Innings

The Minnesota Twins placed Miguel Sano on the DL, again. This time, the offensive production that they missed in the past isn’t missing this time around. Eduardo Escobar is more than handling his own at third base. If Sano wasn’t so young and had so much potential, I’d really look at trading him for pitching. Maybe even to the Brewers?

Clayton Kershaw is on his annual trip to the DL. This time it’s much earlier in the season. The good news is it isn’t his back. The bad news is the Dodgers are in a tail spin and losing Kershaw for an extended period of time won’t make it any easier for their club, or the highly drafted ace for your fantasy team, to turn things around.

Reminder – Mother’s Day is Sunday. Take her to a ball game! If that isn’t going to fly, then at least buy her a card, give her a call or FaceTime her, and absolutely make sure you tell her you love her. Until next week.

Closer News Roundup Week 5 – Astros, White Sox, Cardinals, Twins

May 4, 2018 By avanfossan 1 Comment

Is it time the Houston Astros move past Ken Giles as their primary closer, and give Brad Peacock or Chris Devenski a shot? Andy says yes, expect a change soon.

April couldn’t have passed by any quicker both as a baseball fan and, more specifically, a Minnesota Twins fan. Mother nature didn’t do anybody a lot of favors the first month of the season and, well, the Twins maybe aren’t as good as I thought they’d be, but I digress.

From an offensive standpoint, this week brought up three, three homerun performances by Mookie Betts, A.J. Pollock and Edwin Encarnacion, and a 524 foot blast off the bat of Mike Trout against the Baltimore Orioles. Pitching though – specifically, closers – is where we’re concerned so let’s get caught up with the first full week of May coming up.

Houston Astros

I’d be remiss if I didn’t start out with the Houston Astros closer situation, again. Ken Giles beat himself up, literally, on May 1st after giving up four runs in 1/3 of an inning. If you missed the main event, here it is courtesy of MLB network:

Not only is it a big deal that he blew the save, but he blew the save against the New York Yankees. The Yankee lineup is a dangerous one through nine, so having Giles give up four in a third of an inning should be alarming.

This latest blown save for Giles is making it harder and harder for me to justify that he is the Astros’ solution at closer. They have Brad Peacock and Chris Devenski in the bullpen both with better numbers than Giles.

Name	G	IP	W	L	SV	BLSV	HLD	K	BB	H	HR	R	ER	ERA	WHIP
Chris Devenski, HOU	15	14.1	1	0	2	0	6	17	2	9	1	1	1	0.63	0.77
Brad Peacock, HOU	12	13.2	1	1	1	2	1	17	4	9	3	4	4	2.63	0.95
Ken Giles, HOU	12	10.1	0	1	3	0	0	8	0	10	1	6	6	5.23	0.97

If you haven’t done so already, I’d pick up Peacock or Devenski and stash them because I think there will be a change soon.

Chicago White Sox

Another situation that I looked at last week is that of the White Sox with closer Joakim Soria and set up man Nate Jones. As of May 3, and compared to last week, Soria’s ERA is up more than a full run. He has two blown saves and four total. Granted, he’s not getting the opportunities for closing out games but the Sox need him to get the job done when called upon.

Nate Jones’ ERA is at 1.50 which is up from 1.04 last week but still much better than Soria’s. Jones still only has the one save but from a pure numbers standpoint, I would expect him to take over the role sooner rather than later.

St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals seem to have nailed down Bud Norris as the closer for the foreseeable future. He has six saves and is sporting a 1.72 ERA. I had mentioned last week that Norris is a placeholder until late free agent signee Greg Holland got into game shape, but that looks like it’s becoming less and less a possibility.

Holland gave up three runs on six hits in two appearances last weekend for the Cards. His ERA now is up to 7.36 while appearing in 10 games. He has a WHIP of 2.32. Any pitcher wouldn’t want these numbers and in this case, they make it impossible to justify putting Holland in the closer role, even if that was the intention when they signed him.

Minnesota Twins

Finally, my old friend Fernando Rodney was up to his early season tricks again. He has three saves to go along with his three blown saves. He is walking batters and those walks are turning into runs.

The Twins have maybe one other option as I’ve moved on from the idea using Addison Reed to Ryan Pressley to close out games. My mind tells me that the front office will stick with Rodney until he figures it out or they can flip him to a contender at the deadline (for what, I’m not sure) but my heart says please let the experiment end.

Until next week.

Fantasy Baseball Closer News Roundup – Twins, Cardinals, White Sox

April 27, 2018 By avanfossan Leave a Comment

Fantasy baseball closer news including the rocky start for Greg Holland with St. Louis Cardinals, and updates on the Twins, White Sox, Brewers, Indians and Astros.

We are into the last week of the first month of fantasy baseball season and a lot happened so far – many injuries across MLB and other things. The phenomena known as Shohei Ohtani has sparked comparisons with Babe Ruth, as far as two way players go. Boston Red Sox incredible start and, ironically, Oakland Athletics Sean Manaea’s no hitter against said Red Sox. Much to my chagrin, the Minnesota Twins’ pitching staff igniting the New York Yankees early season slump (as usual).

As far as closers go, it’s been relatively quiet although there are a few tidbits of note. You can also keep on top of things checking our news feed filtered by closers and primary setup men from our depth charts.

Minnesota Twins

Fernando Rodney of the Twins still has a hold on the closer job but has looked anything but solid in his outings. He blew a save opportunity Thursday night recording no outs and collecting the loss after allowing a three run home run to Gary Sanchez.

That is Rodney’s third straight blown save. Unfortunately, setup man Addison Reed has given up runs in two if his last three outings, so he isn’t showing he is ready to close games.

St. Louis Cardinals

One of the situations to keep an eye is in St. Louis. The Cardinals thought they had solved their back of the bullpen issues when they signed free agent Greg Holland a week into the season. Holland, who had been working out in Florida, was coming off a solid season with the Rockies saving 41 games and helping the Rocks get to the NL Wild Card game last year.

This year has been rocky (no pun intended) so far. He clearly is behind from a control standpoint walking eight batters in five innings. As a result, manager Mike Matheny has been using Bud Norris in closing situations.

It may be that Matheny is letting Holland get his feet under him and let him work through his control issues with the belief that he’ll get himself straightened out and help the Cardinals chase down the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central. With that being said, if you haven’t picked up Norris or are looking to handcuff somebody with Holland, it would be a good idea to get him.

Chicago White Sox

Another situation to look at was one I was curious about last week but wanted to let things play out and see where things fell. Chicago White Sox closer situation is questionable as well. Joakim Soria is the closer as of today. He has two saves and an ERA of 3.38.

The issue isn’t the ERA or the saves, but rather is there a better option? I believe there is. Nate Jones is the current setup man for Soria. He has one save but his ERA (1.04) and his strikeouts (11) are better than Soria.

The White Sox record currently sits at 5-16, which certainly doesn’t lend itself to many save opportunities. But as a good friend of mine says with regards to bad teams and saves, “somebody has to get them”.

Brewers, Indians, Astros

The Milwaukee Brewers are still closing by committee although Josh Hader seems to be getting the call more often before Matt Albers and Jacob Barnes.

The Indians put Andrew Miller on the 10-day DL Thursday with a hamstring strain. I asked last week, would Tito ever think about switching up Cody Allen and Miller? The answer for that right now is no but I still think it’s a possibility down the road.

Finally Ken Giles of the Astros is still manager AJ Hinch’s go-to man but that leash appears to be getting shorter and shorter.