Middle Relief
Everyone knows I like me some middle relievers, especially in roto leagues that use an IP cap. It's a great way to reduce your ERA and WHIP and give your team a bump in the K department. Plus in deeper leagues, if you want the next closer-to-be, you have to play the guessing game. Who is going down first? Billy Wagner, Rafael Soriano or Frank Francisco? One of them is getting hurt, that is a million dollar guarantee. In the sexy cool Blog Wars league, you wont be able to pick up the understudy when one of them goes down, they're 3 of 30 middle relievers that are already rostered. 30! I love it. The other 27 MR are:
Pat Neshek, Rafael Betancourt, Trever Miller, Kevin Gregg, Neftali Feliz, J.J. Putz, Ryan Madson, Joba Chamberlain, Matt Thornton, Mike Adams, Alfredo Aceves, Sergio Romo, Matt Guerrier, Luke Gregerson, Michael Wuertz, Brad Ziegler, Takashi Saito, Brandon Lyon, Jason Motte, Brandon League, Scott Downs, J.P. Howell, Chris Perez, Franklin Morales, Daniel Bard, Jenry Mejia, Sean Marshall
Some are substitute closers, some are sitting on their managers bench, some will be dropped like Joel Zumaya was today, but a few will end up getting Saves and they will likely be loved and adorned by their manager. There are only 3 of the 15 teams that are not rostering a Middle Reliever (Eno Sarris, Fantasy Baseball Sherpa, FantasyPros911.com).
I am very proud to commish a league that does not use the Holds stat, but yet 30 Middle Relievers are rostered. I'm like one of those moms with the "My Kid is a A Honor Roll Student" bumper stickers. This lets me proclaim the following: if Ryan Franklin loses the closer job, Trever Miller is getting Saves baby!!! F Jason Motte!!! F Kyle McClellan!!! Miller is a vet (Tony LaRussa loves his vets) and he has been great since he joined the Cards (0.96 WHIP, 2.06 ERA, more than a K per Inning in 2009). It likely will not happen, being that Miller is a Leftie specialist, but I have dreams ya know. I don't care if he gets Saves or not, I'll ride that 1.00 WHIP all the way to funky town. Other Middle Relievers on my Watch List:
Tyler Clippard, Jeremy Affeldt, Darren Oliver, Nick Massett, Sean Burnett, Ronald Belisario, Dan Meyer, Juan Gutierrez, Brendan Donnelly, Jesse Crain, Sammy Gervacio, Joe Smith, Matt Daley, Dan Runzler, Joel Hanrahan, Joel Zumaya, Ryan Perry, Manuel Corpas, Chris Ray, Phil Coke, Peter Moylan, Jim Johnson, George Sherrill, Jose Mijares, Pedro Feliciano, Brian Bruney, Kris Medlen no comments





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I think I own Jason Bay in four of those leagues. I simply couldn’t pass on the chance to acquire one of the better bats in the game, especially when he was available in the fourth round or later of every draft (Blog Wars excluded). Think about it – Bay’s done nothing but hit 30 homers with 100 RBIs, 100 runs scored, and 10 or more steals in four of the last five years! The only reason why he didn’t reach those benchmarks in 2007 was because he was playing through injuries the entire year. That’s another thing – he’s one tough Canadian. People can talk about Citi Field or the Mets lineup all they want, but he had two of those 30-100-100-10 seasons in Pittsburgh, where he had absolutely no run support in a park that’s every bit as homer-friendly as Citi (for those not in the know, Citi was actually slightly above average for homers in its inaugural season according to Park Factors; don’t let the HR totals of the Mets minor league lineup last year fool you). He’s also a career .280 hitter, despite hitting .247 in ’07.

Robinson Cano is in all three leagues I'm in, which is not a surprise. In my opinion, he was the second best second baseman heading into the season and him hitting in the fifth spot should lead to some big numbers. Even if he repeats last year's performance (.320 BA, 25 HRs, 85 RBIs, 103 Rs, 5 SBs), how can I complain? The following players are guys I own in two of the three leagues: Jose Reyes, Curtis Granderson, Carlos Quentin, Alex Rios, Kevin Slowey, Ervin Santana, Jose Valverde, and Matt Capps. Here's how I feel about those players:





