FakeTeams: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:



Sports blogs for fans, by fans.
Around SBN: NHL Free Agency Coverage: NHL Rumors, NHL Signings & Trades


spread the word

Fantasy Baseball: NL Closers

Of all players drafted on a roto/fantasy baseball team, the closer spot has more volatility than a day of trading at the NYSE...well....not in the past month or so. History has shown that he who starts the season as closer has a very good chance at losing that spot by the end of the season.

Here is what happened in 2008, along with predictions for 2009:

Team Apr-08 Oct-08 Apr-09
New York Wagner Ayala Fuentes
Philadelphia Lidge Lidge Lidge
Florida Gregg Lidstrom Lidstrom
Atlanta Soriano Gonzalez Gonzalez
Washington Cordero Hanrahan Hanrahan
Chicago Wood Wood Wood
Milwaukee Gagne Torres Torres
Houston Valverde Valverde Valverde
St. Louis Isringhausen Perez Perez
Pittsburgh Capps Capps Capps
Cincinnatti Cordero Cordero Cordero
Arizona Lyon Qualls Qualls/Pena?
Los Angeles Saito Broxton Broxton
Colorado Corpas Fuentes Corpas
San Diego Hoffmann Hoffman Hoffmann
San Francisco Wilson Wilson Wilson

As you can see, more than half the Opening day closers lost their job for one reason or another. How many of the predicted Opening day 2009 closer are you comfortable drafting? Lidge and Valverde have to be the top two NL closers, with Wilson a close 3rd, but after them, injury risks and inconsistent performance reigns supreme. Thus the importance of drafting the setup guys on the cheap.

0 recs | Comment 0 comments | Share on Facebook Digg!

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Display:

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Welcome to the SB Nation blog about Fantasy Sports.
Start posting on FakeTeams »

Join SB Nation and dive into communities focused on all your favorite teams.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recent FanPosts

P1_revis_profile_page_small
Trade Advice
Uconn_logo_small
OT: Arthurian Legend For 21st Century
Erin-andrews-butt-shot2_small
Jered Weaver... sell?
Fantasy_judgment_logo_small
Fantasy Sports Arbitration
Small
Brewers Trade Options
Small
What to do with Colby Rasmus?
Iwant2believe1240x1024_small
Corey Hart and Starting Pitching
Chicken_slam_large_2_small
Is Keith Law "borrowing" my material on Strasburg...
Mccovey_willie_3_small
NL-Only: E Dukes, G Parra, J Schafer
Mccovey_willie_3_small
NL-only: Bastardo, Medlen or West?

Post_icon New FanPost All FanPosts Carrot-mini


Managers

Uconn_logo_small faketeams

Beer_emotions_small Skeller

Small raygu

Authors

Unknown-4_small RJK

Official Partner of Yahoo! Sports