Fantasy Baseball: Closing Arguments – Add Sean Doolittle

Today’s spotlight in Closing Arguments is shining directly on Sean Doolittle of the Oakland Athletics. When I reviewed the recent MLB saves recorded, his name leapt out to me. (It is a pretty cool name, in my opinion.) This add recommendation is geared for fantasy baseball teams in deep mixed or AL only leagues, or for the owners out there with room on their roster thanks to every single major league player being on the disabled list. Recently, Santiago Casilla was in the hit the hand in a game. Sean Doolittle got the save chance on Sunday, and he closed it out.

Sean Doolittle is available in 76% of Yahoo leagues at the time of this writing. Let’s check in on his stuff. This year he has 18:1 K:BB per www.MLB.com ; and he holds career marks of 287:46 and a WHIP of 0.94. WHIP is (walks and hits divided by innings pitched) and a low number here is a good for you. In other words, he should help your fantasy baseball team get strikeouts and improved ERA / WHIP ratios. He is a former first round pick and his fastball velocity is around 94 mph (also per MLB) and those are both good things. With his career marks and his 2017 season so far, he may be working his way into the closing mix.

Some things to keep in mind when considering adding Sean Doolittle. First Santiago Casilla probably is not going on the DL, nor fading out of the closing mix necessarily. Also, Oakland is currently in last place at 31-40, which means there probably won’t be a ton of save opportunities going forward. Think of this is a cheap lottery ticket opportunity with the bonus of helping your fantasy baseball team’s strikeouts and ratios along the way. As a parting note, we are roughly 25 days from the new Game of Thrones.

Closer List as of 21 June:

Current Closer	Next in line	Team	League	Notes
Brad Brach	Darren O'Day	Baltimore	American League	Zach Britton DL
Craig Kimbrel	Joe Kelly	Boston	American League
Aroldis Chapman	Dellin Betances	New York Yankees	American League
Alex Colome	Brad Boxberger	Tampa Bay	American League	Boxberger INJ
Roberto Osuna	Jason Grilli	Toronto	American League
David Robertson	Tommy Kahnle	Chicago White Sox	American League	Nate Jones DL
Cody Allen	Andrew Miller	Cleveland	American League
Justin Wilson	Francisco Rodriguez	Detroit	American League
Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Kansas City	American League
Brandon Kintzler	Ryan Pressly	Minnesota	American League
Ken Giles	Luke Gregerson	Houston	American League
Cam Bedrosian	David Hernandez	Los Angeles Angeles	American League	Bud Norris DL / committee?
Santiago Casilla	Sean Doolittle	Oakland	American League	Committee?
Edwin Diaz	Nick Vincent	Seattle	American League
Matt Bush	Jeremy Jeffress	Texas	American League
Jim Johnson	Mauricio Cabrera	Atlanta	National League
A.J. Ramos	Kyle Barraclough	Miami	National League
Addison Reed	Fernando Salas	New York Mets	National League	Jeurys Familia - Blood clot issue
Hector Neris	Pat Neshek	Philadelphia	National League	Committee?
Enny Romero	Matt Albers	Washington	National League	Koda Glover DL / Shawn Kelley DL/ committee
Wade Davis	Carl Edwards	Chicago Cubs	National League
Raisel Iglesias	Drew Storen	Cincinnati	National League
Corey Knebel	Jacob Barnes	Milwaukee	National League
Tony Watson	Felipe Rivero	Pittsburgh	National League
Seung Hwan Oh	Trevor Rosenthal	St. Louis	National League
Fernando Rodney	Randall Delgado	Arizona	National League
Greg Holland	Adam Ottavino	Colorado	National League
Kenley Jansen	Sergio Romo	Los Angeles Dodgers	National League
Brandon Maurer	Ryan Buchter	San Diego	National League
Mark Melancon	Derek Law	San Francisco	National League

Recent Changes, coming at you hot and fresh in bullet point style:

• Yankees – Aroldis Champan off of the DL.
• Nationals – Both Koda Glover and Shawn Kelly are on the DL; the team is back to a mix of Enny Romero and possibly Matt Albers. This is pure speculation on my part. Since Glover went down they haven’t many save chances so it is difficult to make an educated guess here. The Nationals are known to be looking for a closer on the trade market. I would avoid their bullpen in most formats. One could write a Greek tragedy based on the Nationals’ bullpen in 2017, complete perhaps with a pyrrhic victory.
• Angels – Do Angels get injured? Yes, yes they do. Ask Mike Trout. Sigh. Bud Norris is on the DL now. Their manager has said they will split closer duties between David Hernandez and Cam Bedrosian. Wonderful. Basically this is another avoid situation, or buy a lottery ticket on the cheap.
• Phillies – are now back to a committee closer team of Hector Neris / Pat Neshek.
• Giants – Mark Melancon struggles continue but he psuedo-firmly holds onto the closer role. Just from watching a few of his recent outings, it seems like his fastball has dropped a tick. I checked a few sites but I don’t have the data and this may not be the main problem. But I am mildly concerned here. Mark Melancon fastball has been in the low 90’s for the last few seasons anyways, so it may not be significant. More problematic for his shareholders is the Giants inability to get to the 9th with a lead or to win games in general.

 

 

 

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