Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat - NL

August 5, 2010 @ 11:35:00

By Tim Heaney
Edited by Nicholas Minnix

Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat: AL | NL

Fantasy baseball closer depth charts: AL | NL

In fantasy baseball, the closer position remains volatile. Rarely does every closer hang on to the job for an entire season - injuries, poor performance and managerial decisions can cloud a team's bullpen picture.

Should you be concerned about a struggling stopper? Which relievers are climbing the depth chart? Are any injuries popping up? KFFL.com's Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat keeps you informed when you're looking for saves.

Mound meetings

• Thanks for nothin', Franklin

  Aaron Heilman, maybe the best bet for saves in the Arizona Diamondbacks' 'pen with Juan Gutierrez (shoulder), worked around a walk to retire three lefty hitters in a ninth-inning, non-save appearance last night. Left-handed bats are hitting just .210 against the right-handed Heilman this year, which has gone a long way in his late-inning consideration all season.
  Since a terrible April, Heilman has sported a 2.75 ERA with 31 K's in 39 1/3 innings. Of course, his 1.37 WHIP in that time reminds us of the risk and that some luck was involved.
• In his first in-game work since Friday, Ryan Franklin gave up two runs on three hits for the St. Louis Cardinals last night. It broke an eight-appearance streak of scoreless ball.
  Outfielder Colby Rasmus missed a diving catch, which led to a triple that aided Franklin's gaffe. The right-hander had plenty of room to seal the victory, though, as St. Louis was up by six runs in the ninth. Just a tragic case of a closer corrupting his owners' stats and ignoring the one column for which he's needed.

Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat: AL | NL

Fantasy baseball closer depth charts: AL | NL

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Tim Heaney

Since the Boston University alum joined KFFL in 2006, his work has been featured by USA Today/Sports Weekly and Yahoo! Sports, among numerous publications.

Tim competes in Tout Wars and LABR and appears every Wednesday on 1570 AM WNST in Baltimore, as well as frequently on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio.

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