Welcome to Closing Time! A weekly check in on everything saves related, Closing Time is where all the closers and speculative options are broken down into tiers based on skill, competition/opportunity/job security, and injury risk. Accompanied by who is most likely to assume the closer role in the event of a change in the hierarchy. It’s a mixture of short and long term value with more focus placed on the rest of the season.
Share your questions and critiques in the comments, I’ll be sure to respond. Follow me on twitter @Just_In_Relief for occasional notes on bullpen happenings through a fantasy lens. Let’s get to it.
TIER 1
1. Kenley Jansen (Los Angeles Dodgers) – Joe Blanton
2. Jeurys Familia (New York Mets) – Addison Reed
3. Zach Britton (Baltimore Orioles) – Brad Brach
4. Wade Davis (Kansas City Royals) – Kelvin Herrera
5. Aroldis Chapman (New York Yankees) – Andrew Miller
6. A.J. Ramos (Miami Marlins) – Fernando Rodney
TIER 2
7. Mark Melancon (Pittsburgh Pirates) – Tony Watson
8. Sam Dyson (Texas Rangers) – Jake Diekman
9. Seung Hwan Oh (St. Louis Cardinals) – Jonathan Broxton
10. Santiago Casilla (San Francisco Giants) – Sergio Romo
11. Jonathan Papelbon (Washington Nationals) – Sean Kelley
12. David Robertson (Chicago White Sox) – Nate Jones
TIER 3
13. Francisco Rodriguez (Detroit Tigers) – Justin Wilson
14. Koji Uehara (Boston Red Sox) – Brad Ziegler
15. Roberto Osuna (Toronto Blue Jays) – Jason Grilli
16. Hector Rondon (Chicago Cubs) – Pedro Strop
17. Steve Cishek (Seattle Mariners) – Edwin Diaz
18. Will Harris (Houston Astros) – Ken Giles
19. Cody Allen (Cleveland Indians) – Bryan Shaw
TIER 4
20. Alex Colome (Tampa Bay Rays) – Xavier Cedeno
21. Brandon Maurer (San Diego Padres) – Ryan Buchter
22. Jeremy Jeffress (Milwaukee Brewers) – Tyler Thornberg
23. Tyler Clippard (Arizona Diamondbacks) – Daniel Hudson
24. Jeanmar Gomez (Philadelphia Phillies) – Hector Neris
25. Huston Street (Los Angeles Angels) – Joe Smith
TIER 5
26. Jim Johnson (Atlanta Braves) – Chris Winthrow or Mauricio Cabrera
27. Ryan Madson (Oakland Athletics) – Ryan Dull
28. Tony Cingrani (Cincinnati Reds) – Ross Ohlendorf
29. Brandon Kintzler (Minnesota Twins) – Fransisco Abad
30. Carlos Estevez (Colorado Rockies) – Jake McGee
TIER 7 – Speculative
31. Andrew Miller (New York Yankees)
32. Ryan Buchter (San Diego Padres)
33. Ryan Dull (Oakland Athletics)
34. Will Smith (Milwaukee Brewers)
35. Jake McGee (Colorado Rockies)
36. Jake Barrett (Arizona Diamondbacks)
37. Ken Giles (Houston Astros)
38. Nate Jones (Chicago White Sox)
39. Sean Kelley (Washington Nationals)
40. Trevor Rosenthal (St. Louis Cardinals)
41. Hector Neris (Philadelphia Phillies)
42. Rasiel Iglesias (Cincinnati Reds)
43. Jason Grilli (Toronto Blue Jays)
44. Dellin Betances (New York Yankees)
45. Sergio Romo (San Francisco Giants)
46. Jason Motte (Colorado Rockies)
INJURED
– Craig Kimbrel (Boston Red Sox)
– Arodys Vizcaino (Atlanta Braves)
– Glen Perkins (Minnesota Twins) OUT FOR THE SEASON
– Brad Boxberger (Tampa Bay Rays)
NOTES
– The second half has begun and that makes for an interesting article as we get to look at closers as they pull out of the gate after the break. The big injury news is Arodys Vizcaino sidelined, though Jim Johnson should perform admirably in his absence, we are still talking about a Braves team that does not deserve trust to get saves unless you are in a very deep league.
– Wade Davis came back from his injury; he’s one of the best in the game and deserves to be up in the top tier. He converted his first save since returning last night on only three pitches, cleaning up the mess made my Chris Young. It’s his 20th of the year, he also threw a clean inning non-save inning.
– AJ Ramos has come out of the break as hot as he entered. Ramos has converted three saves already with five strikeouts while only allowing three hits. This is what we want to see from our top tier guy.
– Ryan Madson is the only other closer with three saves since the break and though he allowed a Justin Smoak solo homer in one of the three, he’s making his owners pretty happy with his performance right now. I still think that the A’s will move him, and I do not know if he will retain his closing roll on another team. We’ll see, I suppose.
– Here is a fun stat: 19 pitchers have picked up at least one save since the ASB, aside from Madson, Jeanmar Gomez is the only other one of the 19 that gave up runs. So for most closers its been a great start to the second half.
– Unfortunately, I said most. David Robertson, Santiago Casilla, Kenley Jansen, and Seung Hwan Oh have all had AWFUL first appearances back…. and yes any blown save for our number one guy Jansen can be deemed awful. Seriously though, all these closers are in the top two tiers and I’m going to chalk most of these blunders up to rust, Robertson is the only one who gets moved down as he’s already been wearing me thin this year. Hopefully all bounce back by next week.
– Interesting situation developing over in Arizona as Jake Barrett picked up a save after Tyler Clippard put three men on base on Sunday night. He did allow two of the inherited runs to score, and I still do think that Clippard is the first in line for the saves in Arizona, but if things continue to be rough for the Diamondbacks pen, Barrett could see some action,