Fantasy Baseball Closer Hot Seat

June 18, 2009 @ 01:00:01

By Tim Heaney
Edited by Bryce McRae

Also see: Fantasy baseball closer depth charts

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

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

Key

Job Security (JS) score	Health (H) score
1 (unstable) to 5 (untouchable)	1 (injury-prone) to 5 (durable)

Toronto Blue Jays

Closer: Jason Frasor

Next in line: B.J. Ryan

Other possibilities: Jeremy Accardo, Jesse Carlson

Disabled list: Scott Downs

With Downs (toe) on the DL, Frasor will be given the first shot at replacing him. No save was needed last night, though. If you were lucky enough to beat the rush, you found a pitcher that was already helping numerous fantasy squads keep their ratios down.

Ryan is a more desperate addition in deep leagues. His strikeout ability isn't strong anymore, but he has pulled off a scoreless run of eight games since May 27. He didn't help his cause with a nerve-wracking, two-walk outing last night, though.

Deep owners should keep an eye on Accardo, who shut the door on 30 games in 2007 when Ryan was out of action. He was just called up from Triple-A Las Vegas, where he served as the stopper. The righty recorded nine saves with a 3.38 ERA, a 22-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and a very pleasing 1.78 groundout-to-air-out ratio.

Job security score: 3

Health score: 5

Mound meetings

• If the Los Angeles Dodgers had needed Jonathan Broxton (toe) Wednesday, the righty wouldn't have been available. He received a cortisone shot on his right big toe. The team says the injury isn't serious and that Broxton should be available today if needed.
• Injured Texas Rangers closer Frank Francisco (shoulder) will be eased back into the closer's role upon his return; it will probably take him a few games to be worked into a save chance. He is scheduled to throw an inning of rehab today; if that goes well, he'll come back to the bigs this weekend. It's wise to keep C.J. Wilson on your roster, though.
• Hell's Bells finally rang for the Milwaukee Brewers' Trevor Hoffman in 2009; the vet blew his first chance of the 2009 season on a bases-clearing double. Mitch Stetter locked it down in the 11th inning. 
• The Washington Nationals recorded a save - yes, we know, shocking. Mike MacDougal knocked off the final two outs by allowing a walk but inducing a double play.
• Andrew Bailey continued his work for the Oakland Athletics, closing things out with a scoreless inning.

Also see: Fantasy baseball closer depth charts

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Tim Heaney

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

Tim co-hosts KFFL's Big Lead Sports block every Thursday (10pm-1am ET) on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210 | XM 87) and competes in Tout Wars (2011) and LABR (2012).

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