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Sure, this guy's safe, but who else is?
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Last week I took a look at a group of medium-to-high risk/high upside candidates who have started off slowly, but that you should be holding onto in order to get the return you hope for in March. This week, I’ll delve into a few different arenas and look at how things are shaping up in the early going.
Closing Time
Everyone knows just how volatile saves can be and if you somehow didn’t know coming into the 2007, there has been enough activity with various closing roles to now have you full in tune with the instability surrounding that role. Here is a team-by-team look at the closer’s role as of today sorted by stability:
|
Team |
Closer (#) |
Next In Line |
Stability
Rating
(1-10) |
|
Baltimore |
Chris Ray (4) |
Danys Baez |
10 |
|
Boston |
Jonathan Papelbon (2) |
Mike Timlin |
10 |
|
Los Angeles (A) |
Francisco Rodriguez (4) |
Scot Shields |
10 |
|
Minnesota |
Joe Nathan (3) |
Pat Neshek
Jesse Crain
Juan Rincon |
10 |
|
New York (A) |
Mariano Rivera (0) |
Kyle Farnsworth |
10 |
|
New York (N) |
Billy Wagner (3) |
Aaron Heilman |
10 |
|
San Diego |
Trevor Hoffman (2) |
Scott Linebrink |
10 |
|
Seattle |
J.J. Putz (0) |
Chris Reitsma |
10 |
|
St. Louis |
Jason Isringhausen (3) |
Josh Hancock
Adam Wainwright |
10 |
|
Washington |
Chad Cordero (1) |
Jon Rauch
Ryan Wagner |
10 |
|
Arizona |
Jose Valverde (6) |
Brandon Lyon |
9 |
|
Los Angeles (N) |
Takashi Saito (5) |
Jonathan Broxton |
9 |
|
Oakland |
Huston Street (2) |
Justin Duchscherer |
9 |
|
Milwaukee |
Francisco Cordero (4) |
Derrick Turnbow |
8.5 |
|
Detroit |
Todd Jones (6) |
Joel Zumaya |
8 |
|
Atlanta |
Bob Wickman (3) |
Rafael Soriano
Mike Gonzalez |
7 |
|
Philadelphia |
Tom Gordon (2) |
Antonio Alfonseca |
7 |
|
Texas |
Eric Gagne (1) |
Akinori Otsuka
Joaquin Benoit
|
7 |
|
Toronto |
Jason Frasor (1) |
Shawn Marcum
B.J. Ryan (DL) |
7 |
|
Pittsburgh |
Salomon Torres (5) |
Matt Capps
Damaso Marte |
6.5 |
|
Chicago (A) |
Bobby Jenks (3) |
Mike MacDougal |
6 |
|
Cleveland |
Joe Borowski (5) |
Roberto Hernandez
Rafael Betancourt |
6 |
|
Chicago (N) |
Ryan Dempster (2) |
Bob Howry |
5.5 |
|
Cincinnati |
David Weathers (5) |
Mike Stanton |
5 |
|
Houston |
Dan Wheeler (2) |
Brad Lidge |
5 |
|
San Francisco |
Armando Benitez (2) |
Brian Wilson
Kevin Correia |
4 |
|
Tampa Bay |
Al Reyes (5) |
Me |
2 |
|
Florida |
Henry Owens (1) |
Taylor Tankersley
Lee Gardner
Jorge Juilo |
1 |
|
Kansas City |
Joakim Soria (1) |
Octavio Dotel (DL)
David Riske |
1 |
A baseball and football columnist online since 1999, Paul's work has been seen in a variety of major sites, including Sporting News and FOX Sports. Paul's been known to dabble into other sports as well, having also covered hockey and even participated in multiple fantasy golf leagues. Yes, Paul really has no life outside of sports, but we like it that way. 