By Jesse Severe
League 3
It’s been a month since we last took a peak at middle relievers and how they can help your fantasy teams. If you survived the post-All-Star lull, when so many owners stop checking in on their teams, you are probably still in the race. Well, how your team finishes in the pitching standings could depend on how you utilize middle relievers. Here are two strategies to pay attention to as you enter the stretch run.
Fall on the Ball
Look at where the competition is ranked and determine where you are likely to gain or lose ground. Let’s say you have solid leads in the standings in ERA, Wins, and Ks, but you are just a few decimal points ahead of the competition in WHIP.
Perhaps your team ERA is founded on overachieving young pitchers, like Justin Duchscherer and Edinson Volquez, who might not be able to keep up their results through the end of September. Middle relievers are a good, low-risk strategy to protect a lead in ratios. Let the other guy grab the September rookie call-ups, and let him take the risk in guessing which guy may be able to help him. I’ll take Matt Thornton or ‘To Be Announced’ every time.
The Innings Limit
If you haven’t done it yet, you might want to check to see where you are in the innings limit for the year. If you are projecting out way over the limit, it may be time to start trading in the Randy Wolfs of the world for Chad Qualls. The only thing worse than a five inning shellacking is a five inning shellacking when you can’t afford five poorly pitched innings. If you are running out of innings, you need to pick innings that give maximum value. Middlemen will give it to you.
It has been six weeks since I presented this set of stats, and the names are mostly the same as before. As usual, the data is based on 8 K/9, 4 BB/9, 1.35 WHIP, 3.50 ERA, 1.5 HR/9, no games started, not an active closer, currently not on the DL, and at least 40 innings.
The White Sox remain on the list, though Matt Thornton has cooled off a little in the second half.
Petco continues to come through, with the excellent Heath Bell finally working his way up to join Mike Adams as a top middle reliever.
It is nice to see Rafael Perez finally recapture his dominant 2007 form, even if a little too late for the Indians.
Will Ohman in Atlanta has been quietly good all year. He’s been scored on in only two of twenty-four appearances over the last two months, and the last came after Bobby Cox put him out in three straight contests. If the Braves win any more games this year, they’ll be close ones. Ohman might get some vulture win opportunities.