With the trade winds blowing and closers moving all over the place, here’s another version of your weekly bullpen report to get you caught up! As a reminder, here’s the approach:
- Closer/Speculative Adds – Players owned in less than 70 percent of Fantrax leagues that have a share of a closing role, or are worth a speculative pickup.
- HOLDS!!! – If we do all this work to identify top relievers, we might as well surface the ones who provide value even if they aren’t earning saves. This will be guys who are worth an add to boost ratios or if you are in a league with Holds as a category.
- A recap of the week prior – who earned saves, who blew saves, and what each pitcher’s peripherals were like over the past seven days. We’ll look at the top two or three options from each bullpen so we can also take a sneak peek at who is next in line for saves. We’ll also include Fantrax ownership in everything we do.
- Bullpen Matrix – An interactive visual of bullpen usage for the past seven days. The bullpen report is dynamic so you can change the lookback period to your heart’s desire, but we’ll focus on how each team’s bullpen was managed over the past seven days.
I’m open to any and all feedback, and I hope this bullpen report evolves to maximize effectiveness for the readers. Don’t hesitate to reach out in the comments or on Twitter with comments, questions, suggestions about the article or fantasy baseball in general. Let’s get into it!
It’s time to multi-task! Keep up with all of our baseball coverage, but kick off your football prep and dig into our 2018 Fantasy Football Draft Kit. Then head on over to Fantrax and join a Fantasy Football league.
Week 18 Bullpen Report
Speculative Adds
Scott Alexander (LA Dodgers) – 31% owned: Alexander blew his first chance at filling in for Kenley Jansen, but he’s still worth a roll of the dice if he’s available in your league. I would also recommend checking on Kenta Maeda’s availability and nabbing him if a manager dropped him after the move to the bullpen. Maeda is my next bet to take over the Dodgers closer role.
Luis Avilan (Chicago White Sox) – 3% owned: It’s still a closer-by-committee in Chicago between Avilan, Jeanmar Gomez, and Thyago Vieira but Avilan secured the most recent save and Gomez blew his. Vieira has electric stuff but very little command, so Avilan is the guy to own at the moment. At only 3% owned he’s widely available in all formats.
Trevor Hildenberger (Minnesota Twins) – 20% owned: With three save conversions this week, it appears the role is clearly Hildenberger’s and not Addison Reed as initially thought.
Mychal Givens (Baltimore Orioles) – 33% owned: Givens has been lights out the past two weeks with six innings pitched, six strikeouts, zero walks, and a .251 xwOBA. The Orioles won’t be competitive, but with so many teams tanking he will run into 5-6 more saves in August and September.
HOLDS!!!!
Justin Anderson (LA Angels) – 13% owned: He can be erratic at times, but the Angels are going to be in a ton of close games in the tight AL West race and Anderson is the 8th inning option behind Blake Parker. While he’s rolling, run with Anderson.
Taylor Rogers (Minnesota Twins) – 6% owned: Rogers has five strikeouts, one walk, and a .219 wOBA in his past three outings. He has an elite K:BB ratio and while the Twins aren’t really a contender, they have a ton of games against the weak AL Central so there are holds to be had for Rogers.
Neil Ramirez (Cleveland Indians) – 1% owned: Ramirez has nasty stuff and is stuck behind a loaded Indians bullpen. He has seven strikeouts in his last 3.2 innings pitched with zero walks.
Prior Week Recap
[table “228” not found /]Bullpen Matrix
For more on how the Bullpen Matrix works head on over the dedicated page for the chart.
