2007 Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy Part 4

Relief Pitchers

Joe Nathan
Mariano Rivera
Fransisco Rodriguez
Billy Wagner
B.J. Ryan
Huston Street
Brad Lidge
Trevor Hoffman

Bobby Jenks
J.J. Putz
Chris Ray
Tom Gordon
Brian Fuentes
Takashi Saito
Fransisco Cordero
Chad Cordero

Eric Gagne
Todd Jones
Joe Borowski
Jason Isringhausen
Bob Wickman
Armando Benitez
Jose Valverde
Octavio Dotel
Salomon Torres

Ryan Dempster
Jonathan Paplebon
Mike Timlin
Taylor Tankersley
Joel Pineiro
Joel Zumaya
Kerry Wood
Rafael Soriano
Mike Gonzalez
Seth McClung
Akinori Otsuka
Scot Shields
Jonathan Broxton
Matt Capps
Jorge Julio

David Weathers
Dan Wheeler
Fernando Rodney
Mike MacDougal
Adam Wainwright
Braden Looper
Bob Howry
Derrick Turnbow
Todd Coffey
LaTroy Hawkins
Scott Linebrink

These rankings are based mainly on saves. A player like Paplebon is clearly more valuable than most players on this list since he’ll likely be starting instead of closing, which reduces his save potential.

The first tier is composed of the elite closers. The guys that shouldn’t lose their jobs unless they get injured. These guys help keep the ERA and WHIP down and for the most part, they contribute enough in strike outs.

The second tier is composed of the remaining “solid” closers. Guys that should be their team’s clear-cut closer. These guys tend to have some issues…ERA, WHIP, strike outs or simply not having enough experience as a “proven closer” that they might be on a shorter leash.

The third tier is composed of guys that should come out of spring as the closer, but could also lose their job if they struggle early. It also has some guys that should be the clear closer, but their team might not win enough games to pad their stat totals.

The fourth tier is all about pitchers that are in very cloudy closer situations and still have a chance to break camp as the closer. I’ve also got players (like Otsuka) that are next in line for saves behind some rather fragile players.

The fifth tier is mainly a list of players to keep an eye on. These guys could all be closing somewhere by the end of the year.

So where, exactly, do you draft your closer? Most of the time, drafts have closer runs in which the elite closers will tend to go in a two or three round gap, followed by another run of the mid tier closers a few rounds later. However, closer is the most volatile position from year to year so my theory is to NEVER draft closers early. Don’t get too caught up in drafting during a closer run…look for other value that is getting overlooked at this point!!

Usually you can pick up some decent closers really late in the draft. Guys like Brian Fuentes, Todd Jones, Jose Valverde, Joe Borowski, and Bob Wickman are all VERY unsexy picks, but they should all rack up decent save totals and are lasting far too late in drafts. I’m talking 17th round in 10 team leagues late.

Not to mention other closers like Dotel and Torres are actually going undrafted in many drafts. Since these guys will still get you saves, and that’s really the only reason to draft a closer, you simply don’t need to draft closers early.

The other thing about closers is that usually 3 or 4 guys come out of “nowhere” to pick up a bunch of saves. That’s why I have the last two tiers here. Keep an eye on these guys and the guys closing ahead of them. Some of these guys will pick up 20-30 saves by the end of the year.