Fantasy Baseball: Closing Arguments

Welcome to Closing Arguments, where we will break down closers and highlighting possible relief pitching help for your fantasy baseball teams. Bullpen situations can change rapidly, and twitter is really the fastest source of information. That being said, those situations typical happen because no player is standing out from the others. I will help players of any format, short mixed league, deep mixed league, and NL/AL-only leagues. Let’s get down to business. 

First off, here is a list of the current MLB closers as listed by their teams on MLB.com. I find the mothership’s website is underused by us fantasy baseball owners. Make sure you check out the team pages from time to time. I have definitely profited from doing so. How do you see this? Click on a team page, then roster, and finally select depth chart from the drop down menu. Of course, there is no need because your pal Matt has already done so.

American League 

Baltimore	Zach Britton
Boston	Craig Kimbrel
New York Yankees	Aroldis Chapman
Tampa Bay	Alex Colome
Toronto	Roberto Osuna
Chicago White Sox	David Robertson
Cleveland	Cody Allen
Detroit	Francisco Rodriguez
Kansas City	Kelvin Herrera
Minnesota	Brandon Kintzler
Houston	Ken Giles
Los Angeles Angeles	Cameron Bedrosian (not official CL)
Oakland	Ryan Madson (not official CL)
Seattle	Edwin Diaz
Texas	Sam Dyson

National League

Atlanta	Jim Johnson
Miami	A.J. Ramos
New York Mets	Addison Reed (while Familia is SUSP)
Philadelphia	Joaquin Benoit
Washington	Blake Treinen
Chicago Cubs	Wade Davis
Cincinnati	Raisel Iglesias (not official CL)
Milwaukee	Neftali Feliz
Pittsburgh	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Seung Hwan Oh
Arizona	Fernando Rodney
Colorado	Greg Holland
Los Angeles Dodgers	Kenley Jansen
San Diego	Brandon Maurer
San Francisco	Mark Melancon

 

I expect around five of the above listed closers to change in next week or so. The Phillies and Reds closing situations may continue to be volatile all season.

Help on the Wire

Often the more fantasy valuable relief pitcher is not the listed closer. A classic example of this is Andrew Miller for Cleveland. His manager is willing to use him often, and in critical situations as opposed to a closer pitching the ninth inning against the opponent’s bottom three hitters.

Closer in waiting	Dellin Betances NYY
Great stuff (high k/9)	Adam Ottavino Col
Swing Man (or 6th Starter)	Mike Montgomery Cubs

There is usually overlap with a strong reliever being one with great stuff and is also second in line for saves. That is true for Betances, Ottavino, and several others. Those of you in only leagues probably can’t pick up any of the pitchers listed above.  High leverage (#drink) pitchers don’t float around on the waiver wire too long in those leagues. Here are few names you may to add to your relief pitching squad in deep leagues. These gentlemen have played late in games over the past several days and gotten some strikeouts along the way. It sounds simple because it is. Sure you should do some more research, but this is a good start. 

American League

• Tommy Kahnle – White Sox
• Blake Parker – Angels
• Chris Devenski – Astros

National League

• Jose Torres – Padres
• Felipe Rivero – Pirates
• Michael Lorenzen – Reds

As always, it depends on your specific team needs. If you are trying to lower your ratios you may want a different player compared to a team trying to find a future closer for saves. Good luck on the waiver wire. Let’s meet back here next week, for another edition of Closing Arguments.

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