Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat: Jon Rauch, Mets bullpen, more

August 16, 2011 @ 14:46:30

By Tim Heaney
Edited by Nicholas Minnix

 

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

What are the odds that you still own the relief pitchers you rostered in your fantasy baseball draft? KFFL.com's Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat series gives you no-nonsense ratings of performances, injuries and managerial decisions in MLB bullpens. Get your arm loose: Let's find fantasy baseball players in your rotisserie or head-to-head baseball league who'll get saves.

Mound meetings

• UPDATE: Jon Rauch (Toronto Blue Jays) hit the DL Tuesday with appendicitis. Frank Francisco will likely take over Toronto's save chances in the interim, and maybe even after Rauch gets healthy, given Rauch's shakiness in the role. Francisco is worth a pickup everywhere.

• Monitor Wilson, Nunez

  With Jason Isringhausen recording his 300th career save with a Monday inning, the New York Mets will transition to trying out Bobby Parnell in the ninth frame. Grab him everywhere. He might be statistically rough, but he has the fastball and K profile to do the job. Izzy still might pick up a few saves along the way, but he's less attractive to own in mixed leagues, depending on your needs.
• Following a rough stretch last week, Mariano Rivera looked more like himself Monday, tossing a 1-2-3 inning with two ground-outs and a backwards K. The New York Yankees' icon is still worth monitoring (it's just one outing, after all), but if he shows his cutter is working again, this will become a non-issue.
• Brian Wilson, meanwhile, might have still been battling the back stiffness that kept him out of Sunday's action. The San Francisco Giants personality blew the save Monday, giving up three runs on two walks and three hits, including a two-out, two-RBI single to lose the game.
  Fantasy owners should watch for updates on Wilson's condition. With Sergio Romo (arm) a DL candidate, the Bay men would probably turn to Jeremy Affeldt if both righties were to miss time. The ground-ball specialist isn't worth a mixed-league speculation just yet, but don't forget about him.
• Painful Monday night for the Florida Marlins' Leo Nunez: The righty retired the final eighth-inning hitter and the leadoff man in the ninth. He took a grounder off his pitching hand during the next at-bat. He threw him out but then allowed two straight doubles to blow the save. After Nunez was removed following an intentional walk, his replacement, Randy Choate, surrendered a three-run tater.
  Keep tabs on Nunez's status. Edward Mujica (lat) is day-to-day but would likely get the call if available. If not, they'd probably play matchups with Choate, Mike Dunn or Steve Cishek.
• Having pitched on five of the last six days, Carlos Marmol needed a day off Monday. Kerry Wood locked down the Chicago Cubs' save as he struck out two in a perfect inning. He has fanned 10 of his last 11 opposing batters.

 

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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