Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat - NL

March 3, 2011 @ 03:28:44

By Tim Heaney
Edited by Nicholas Minnix

 

Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat | AL depth charts | NL depth charts

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 cloud a team's bullpen picture.

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

Key

 

Los Angeles Dodgers

Closer: Jonathan Broxton

Understudy: Hong-Chih Kuo

Nathan's fire, Feliz's LT value: AL Hot Seat | Depth charts

Lurkers: Kenley Jansen

Brox primarily threw fastballs in his first spring action, retiring three of the four batters he faced Monday. It's early, but skipper Don Mattingly was merely glad Broxton didn't have much trouble.

The righty is considering throwing more split-finger fastballs this season but hasn't shown a heavy desire to do so. Given he was struggling so much with his top two pitches last season, it'd be interesting for him to experiment with a third. It's a possible avenue for him to rediscover his high 2009 grounder rate. It's just another layer of Broxton's recovery to watch.

• Previously, in Los Angeles...

Job security score: 3

Health score: 4

Mound meetings

• Time to split?

  After an unproductive session of tossing batting practice Monday, Brian Wilson tested his back, where he was experiencing discomfort, by throwing some BP Thursday. He reportedly gave it a full go with decent results. The San Francisco Giants' stopper should appear in game action soon. Monitor this, but there's no indication he won't start the season on time.
• Heath Bell (calf) threw batting practice Wednesday and will pitch in a game in the next three or four days, per San Diego Padres manager Bud black. No reason to worry.

 

Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat | AL depth charts | NL depth charts

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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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