Closer Report: Rankings for Week 22

We're into the final month of the fantasy baseball season, and for me, the season has gone by way too quick. There will come a time in early October when I will start yearning for a fantasy baseball draft, but the playoffs and World Series will keep me from going nuts, especially with the Dodgers looking like they could go far in the playoffs this season.

There probably won't be too many changes in the closer rankings in September, so I will focus on what some of the closers have accomplished this season in this article going forward.

Let's take a look at a few of the more dominant closers in the game this week:

Kenley Jansen

Jansen didn't start closing for the Dodgers till around the end of May, but now has 24 saves on the season. He has maintained his 13 K/9 rate from 2012, and is showing more control this season as his walk rate is down from 3.05 BB/9 to 1.60 BB/9 this season. Since the beginning of August, Jansen has faced 48 batters, striking out 26 of them and giving up just one run on just two hits and three walks.

Craig Kimbrel

Kimbrel leads the majors in saves with 43, and while his strikeout rate is down by almost 4 strikeouts per nine innings (16.66 K/9 to 12.86 K/9), he is keeping the ball ball on the ground at a 47% rate, and is keeping the ball in the park, as his 0.48 HR/9 indicates. He will be the first closer chosen in 2014 drafts and for good reason.

Danny Farquhar

Farquhar looks like he will have the Mariners closer job the rest of the season, and should be the closer coming out of spring training in 2014. After a first half where he put up a 6.94 ERA while striking out 35 and walking 10 batters in 23.1 innings, he has settled down with a 1.96 ERA, with a 36-7 strikeout to walk rate in 23 innings in the second half. His 1.63 FIP indicates he has pitched better than his 4.47 ERA this season, and his 57.5% strand rate confirms how unlucky he was in the first half of the season.

Aroldis Chapman

Chapman is one of the more dominant closers in the game, striking out 90 batters in just 53.1 innings of work. Of pitchers with 50 or more innings on the mound this season, Chapman ranks 104th in all of baseball. He has struck out more batters than Aaron Harang, Paul Maholm and Joe Saunders, starting pitchers who have thrown more than double the number of innings Chapman has this season. One area of concern for fantasy owners is the rise in his HR/9 rate, which has more than doubled from 0.50 HR/9 to 1.18 HR/9 this season.

Let's take a look at the Closer Rankings for Week 22: