Closer Help
My league only counts saves (+ ERA/WHIP) for relief pitchers and I was wondering what your thoughts are on these guys:
Dan Bard
Drew Storen
Jon Rauch
Jose Contreras
Rauch should be closing some games early in the year for the Jays. After that who knows what will happen. Should be decent for the time being though.
Storen has had a brutal spring if I remember correctly. Is he starting in the bigs this season? Anyway, he's supposed to be good, but I'd hold on to what you have right now.
Wouldn't touch the other guys. Papelbon is in the way of Bard.
Storen is in a closer by commitee situation with Sean Burnett in Washington, Rauch is the closer for the Jays until Frank Francisco is healthy. Bard is awfully good but he won't get any saves unless the Red Sox trade Papelbon. Contreras is the closer until Lidge gets back, so that should be for a while.
What Mac said. However, I don't necessarily think Bard is the first one that gets the first opportunity.
Keeper League:
F) N.Backstrom, E.Malkin, V.Lecavalier, P.Mueller, A.Mcdonald, B.Boyes, A.Hemsky, S.Horcoff, K.Turris, D.Jeffrey, M.Perreault, C.O'Reilly, S.Upshall, M.Erat, S.Gagne, D.Legwand D) S.Souray, M.Streit, A.Babchuk, T.Gilbert, I.Cole, J.Hillen, M.Methot G) B.Elliott, S.Varlamov, C.Ward, J.Reimer P) N.Kadri, E.Kuznetsov, S.Shirokov, V.Tarasenko, J.Blum, OEL, J.Moore, O.Pavelec
I'd go like this...
1) Drew Storen (he'll be the closer in Was, despite what anyone says)...
2) Jon Rauch (part time close, but Francisco's nothing to write home about)...
3) Jose Contreras (another part time closer... Lidge injury prone)
4) Dan Bard (best pitcher in the bunch, but not going to save many this year).
Ya Bard also has Jenks in front of him.
I'm confused as to why Contreras is so far down on the list? Philly is an excellent team and it sounds like Francisco isn't hurt that badly.
Have to remember it's all about opportunity, and not howe good a team is. While Contreras was very good last year, we don't necessarily see Lidge's injury as that severe. Yet.
Keeper League:
F) N.Backstrom, E.Malkin, V.Lecavalier, P.Mueller, A.Mcdonald, B.Boyes, A.Hemsky, S.Horcoff, K.Turris, D.Jeffrey, M.Perreault, C.O'Reilly, S.Upshall, M.Erat, S.Gagne, D.Legwand D) S.Souray, M.Streit, A.Babchuk, T.Gilbert, I.Cole, J.Hillen, M.Methot G) B.Elliott, S.Varlamov, C.Ward, J.Reimer P) N.Kadri, E.Kuznetsov, S.Shirokov, V.Tarasenko, J.Blum, OEL, J.Moore, O.Pavelec
I know it's only spring training, but...
Drew Storen was pummeled by the Mets on Tuesday, giving up four runs and seven hits in two-thirds of an inning.
One of the hits was a three-run homer from David Wright. Storen was coming off three straight strong outings, but this takes his spring ERA back up to 11.12. At this point, Sean Burnett looks like the heavy favorite for April saves for the Nats.
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