What a Relief

Closing pitchers are sometimes overlooked in fantasy baseball. Many times, you can find a relief pitcher or two in the top ten pitchers at the end of the year, especially if your league allows that player to be categorized as a relief pitcher even though the majority of his playing time was due to starting games.

Don’t count out the Chicago White Sox just yet. The Southsiders are having a nice June, and Bobby Jenks is collecting the saves. He isn’t nervous; he just sweats…a lot. Imagine if he actually had to run. Anyway, the man that was once Hank Hill’s son is getting the job done and is well worth your consideration and attention.

The Texas Rangers’ starting pitcher, Colby Lewis, is racking up fantasy points with strikeouts and wins. In most leagues, he is listed as a relief pitcher, which is great if your league dictates a minimum of at least one relief pitcher. He will continue to rack up the points as a starter if he continues to pitch the way he has for the first half of this season. The 31-year-old has a record of 7-4 with an ERA of 3.08 and has 90 strikeouts in 93.2 innings, which is good enough for top-five closers in many leagues.

Billy Wagner has had an impressive season so far. The Atlanta Braves’ closer is coming back from Tommy John surgery and has played like the old Billy Wags. He has been a key part of the Braves’ resurgence and is at the back end of a solid bullpen. With 14 saves, five wins and 43Ks, Wagner is a great option.

Two of the past top closers are having decent seasons but are not racking up the points that fantasy owners predicted they would when they were drafted. The Yankees’ Mariano Rivera and the Red Sox’s Jonathon Papelbon are barely cracking the top-15 points-getters for closers.

Turn the Page

Sometimes it just takes a quick flip of the wrist to turn the calendar and start over. Let’s take a look at some of the best hitter and pitchers from June of 2009 to possibly get an idea of what to expect this June.

Some of last year’s top hitters were the usual suspects. Albert Pujols, Ichiro Suzuki, Hanley Ramirez, David Wright and Prince Fielder were some of the top points-getters in fantasy baseball last June. Those guys are, of course, all on teams in your league. Let’s go a little deeper and find some players that might be still swimming in your free agent pool.

Scott Rolen, then of the Blue Jays and now of the Reds, had a great June of ’09 posting a .384 average with two homers and 11 RBI. Adam LaRoche, who was in Pittsburgh at the time, hit .344 with four home runs and 15 RBI (which is more shocking considering the Pirates were probably mathematically eliminated from the playoffs by June 1). Those numbers were all nice, but check out what the Angels’ Juan Rivera did last year. Rivera hit a decent .290 but hit eight homers while driving in 24 in the process.

A few quality starting pitchers had a very nice June last year. The Rockies’ Aaron Cook went 5-1 with a 2.36 ERA. Scott Baker, of the Twins, went a perfect 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA. Kevin Millwood, then of the Rangers, went 4-1 while recording a tiny 1.30 ERA. The Giants’ Barry Zito went 3-1 but had a high ERA of 5.81 and the Yankees’ Andy Pettitte was 2-2 with a 5.06 ERA. No doubt that Zito and Pettitte benefited from high powered offenses last year.

There, of course, isn’t a guarantee behind last year’s numbers that they will be duplicated; however, it is something fun to watch over the next few weeks.

Straight Outta Left Field

The fun fact of the week

Major League Baseball’s all-time caught stealing leader is Ricky Henderson with 335. Ricky was caught 42 times, the most in his career, in 1982. He did, however, make it up with stealing a ridiculous 130 bags that same season.