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If you think drafting closers is easy… think again. There are more strategies around drafting closers than just about any other position on the diamond. And here’s why…

I’m going to share with you, what I feel are, the top 10 closers through the first 2 and a half weeks of fantasy baseball. You’d expect the top of this list to be filled with tier one type closers. But that just isn’t the case. In fact, more closers in the top 10 are found in what many considered as the bottom tier of closers (pre-season rankings) the the top tier. Very interesting!

1. Joakim Soria | Kansas City Royals - Soria has 5 saves, a 10 strikeout to zero walks ratio in seven innings and has only given up 2 hits. He also has a perfect 0.00 ERA and a 0.29 WHIP.
2. Jonathan Papelbon | Boston Red Sox - Paps is 5 for 5 in save opportunities and has a dominating 14 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio. His ERA is 1.29 and his WHIP is 0.86.
3. Bobby Jenks | Chicago White Sox - Jenks has one more save than Paps and Soria, but his lack of strikeouts (he only has two K’s in 7.0 innings) kept me from placing him any higher than 3rd on this list. He has a 0.00 ERA and a 0.86 WHIP.
4. Mariano Rivera | New York Yankees - Rivera is a perfect 5 for 5 in save opportunities this season with a perfect 0.00 ERA, as well. He also sports a 7:0 strikeout to walk ratio and a very tiny 0.47 WHIP. Studly!
5. Joe Nathan | Minnesota Twins - Nathan hasn’t given up an earned run yet, and his WHIP is 1.00 to go along with the 0.00 ERA. He’s 5 for 5 in save opportunities and has 5 strikeouts and zero walks in six innings of work.
6. C.J. Wilson | Texas Rangers - Wilson has four saves and has only given up two hits in 7.0 innings of relief work. He only has one strikeout (that number could use improvement) and one walk. His ERA is 0.00 and his WHIP 0.43.
7. George Sherrill | Baltimore Orioles - Sherrill leads MLB with 6 saves, which is why he’s on this list even though his ERA is 3.18. He has a 4:2 strikeout to walk ratio in 5.2 innings of work. His WHIP is 0.71.
8. Todd Jones | Detroit Tigers - Jones is 3 for 3 in save opportunities when the Tigers give him a chance to close out games (I never thought that would be a problem in 2008). He has a 1.50 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP to go along with four strikeouts and two walks.
9. Jason Isringhausen | St. Louis Cardinals - Isringhausen is tied for the MLB lead with Jenks and Sherrill with six saves, but only landed at #8 on this list due to his 4.50 ERA. He has an 8:2 strikeout to walk ratio, which doesn’t suck, but he’s given up 9 hits in 8 innings on the mound and sports a WHIP of 1.37.
10. Matt Capps | Pittsburgh Pirates - Capps is 4 for 4 in save opportunities and has a 3.52 ERA with a 1.04 WHIP. In 7.2 innings of relief work, Capps has given up six hits and has a 6:2 strikeout to walk ratio.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Closers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.