By Jesse Severe
League 3
2,500 years ago, the Chinese philosopher Mozi told the following story:
A farmer was in the woods one day chopping down trees for firewood. For a while, he stood on one of the stumps of the trees he had already cut down, when a rabbit came speeding across the field, crashed straight into the stump, snapped its neck and died.
The farmer brought the rabbit home as dinner for his family. The next day, a passerby found the farmer again in the woods. This time, instead of chopping trees, he stood on a stump in the woods. Asked what he was doing, he simply said “hunting rabbits.”
Drafting last year’s elite middle relievers is like standing on a stump, waiting for a rabbit to crash into it again. Still, this is how most people look at middle relief in fantasy baseball.
Who are the well-known middle relievers in MLB? Mostly, the few names people remember in middle relief tend to be those who were elite last year and who play for the big-market teams. For example, the 2007-vintage Rafael Betancourt was middle reliever ‘lightning in a bottle’, but it turns out bottled lightening has an early expiration date (see: 2008 Rafael Betancourt).
Hideki Okajima is a household name because he plays for the Red Sox Nation and came from Japan at the same time as Daisuke Matsuzaka, making for a nice storyline for big sports media outlets. However, with the popularity, Okajima continually deserves mention as an elite middle reliever for his performance on the diamond and not just for his uniform and nationality. The problem is, you’ll overpay for that handful of vulture saves and that “B” on his ball cap.
Carlos Marmol and Jonathon Broxton have put up amazing strikeout rates for a couple of years in big media markets. Both have value, though both have also dropped off my middle relief list because of a rising walk rate (Marmol) and a few disaster appearances (Broxton).
Oh sure, there was that fun Pat Neshek All Star write-in campaign ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKawelRz_vY ) that brought an obscure guy into the limelight for a while. Check out his very nice player website ( www.patneshek.com ), too, but 2006-2007’s flavor of the month is hurt this year and won’t be of much use to your fantasy team.
Which brings me to the other guy you were thinking of when I asked about a “big-name” middle reliever: Scot Shields. All year, I have been pointing to Shields as the ultimate example of valuing a guy for his reputation and name instead of his stats. People actually used a 19th or 20th round draft pick on Shields, planning to feast on the fat stump-rabbit that was Shields’s 2005 10-win season. Shields makes my list for the first time, this week, alongside Okajima and 16 other guys no one drafted in your Mafia league.
I should point out the obvious: if you see a name here that wasn’t on the list last time, they must be having a pretty good June. As usual, the minimum stats: 3.5 ERA, 1.3 WHIP, 8 K/9, 4 BB/9, 1.5 HR/9, 13+ IP, max 1 game started, and not a current closer.
Maybe I ought to disqualify Brandon Morrow as he’s now the Mariners’ closer with Putz out. He got the closer job right after my last column went to press and before it published. What is worth noting about his, probably-temporary, 9th inning gig is how manifestly he deserves it right now. Morrow is pitching as well, right now, as Putz was last year. With 63.1 innings pitched in 2007, it isn’t just his first time around the league, either.
White Sox and Blue Jays, again, fill up the list, with Scott Linebrink joining his new Sox teammates. I picked up Matt Thornton around the time I wrote my last column and have been very happy with the results.
Santiago Casilla is back off the DL, though he had his first truly bad appearance of the season in his first game back. Wait a while before you pick him up.
Jared Burton, in his second year, has an ERA that has improved each month. He had a very nice rookie season and his strikeout rate is climbing, too. If some of the other names high on this list are gone, he’s worth a shot.