Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat: Jon Rauch's return, Joe Nathan's ... return?

September 1, 2011 @ 10:44:16

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

• Twins and Nathan at crossroads

  The Toronto Blue Jays activated Jon Rauch (appendectomy) from the disabled list Thursday. While he was the closer in name when he went on the DL, Frank Francisco, the owner of 13 straight scoreless outings, had been a much better pitcher even before Rauch was sidelined. Hang on to both pitchers for now, but Francisco has been pitching like the option John Farrell would keep in the closer role. Too bad Toronto doesn't offer too many chances for either to capitalize on the job.
• Joe Nathan endured a two-run stumble Wednesday to log his 12th save of 2011. On Wednesday he used his 10-and-5 player rights to reject a waiver trade to a contending team, though the Minnesota Twins asked him to waive them about 30 minutes before the deadline, according to Nathan.
  He said if he didn't have a $12.5 million team option in 2012 with the Minnesota Twins, he probably would've taken the deal. Minny might reject it but could still work out a deal to keep him in this role for next season. Nathan can easily find stopper work elsewhere if the Twins want to move on, but his tenuous status for the long term makes him a reliever to watch in the offseason.

 

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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