MLB Closers and Saves Waiver Wire Watch for 4/9/15

Editor's Note: Bookmark our MLB Closers & Saves Depth Charts for the latest look at all the current closers, setup men, longshots and relief pitcher waiver wire adds. Waiver Wire Saves & MLB Bullpen Report for 4/9/2015 The season isn't even a week old yet, but we already had one major trade involving a closer and a... Read More

Tigers Place Joe Nathan On 15-Day DL: Soria New Closer

After an opening day save, Detroit Tigers closer, Joe Nathan, has been placed on the 15-day DL with a right flexor strain in his pitching elbow, according to HardballTalk. The 40-year-old, 15-year veteran, was hoping to bounce back from a really bad season. Nathan pitched in 62 games last season with Detroit. He finished with... Read More

Joakim Soria (RP, DET) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All Leagues Immediately OWNED IN: 13% of Fleaflicker Leagues ANALYSIS: Joakim Soria is now the closer in Detroit. Run to your league's waiver wire and pick him up immediately. In standard 5x5 leagues that preciously value saves, Soria is worth a pretty penny of your FAAB budget. Joe Nathan was placed on the DL with... Read More

Chris Hatcher (RP, LAD) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in All 12+ Team Leagues OWNED IN: 5% of Fleaflicker Leagues ANALYSIS: Don't pay for saves... ever! Fantasy baseball experts around the world yell this every season and for good reason. Saves are volatile, closers are unpredictable, and managers for whatever reason don't like to give fantasy owners much insight on who they plan to... Read More

Mets Place Jenrry Mejia On 15-Day DL With Elbow Inflammation

The New York Mets have placed their closer, Jenrry Mejia, on the 15-day DL after dealing with elbow soreness while warming up before he was supposed to come into the ninth inning. The 25-year-old right-hander underwent an X-ray, MRI scanes and was given a cortisone injection after leaving the season opener on Monday against the... Read More

Jeurys Familia (RP, NYM) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add for Saves in All Leagues OWNED IN: 5% of Fleaflicker Leagues ANALYSIS: Mets closer Jenrry Mejia had to stop throwing today (Monday, 4/6) while warming up due to elbow tenderness. Uh oh. While nothing is certain yet, apparently he experienced elbow soreness before the game -- and then while warming up before the 9th inning, he... Read More

MLB Closers and Saves Waiver Wire Watch for 4/6/15

Most fantasy owners focus all their attention on the big time stars of the league. Lesser known relief pitchers are often overlooked by casual fantasy players, except when they're blowing a big save perhaps. That's why twice a week throughout the entire 2015 MLB Season RotoBaller will bring you the latest fantasy info, breaking news and advice... Read More

Jason Grilli (RP, ATL) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add Immediately In All Leagues OWNED IN: 8% of Fleaflicker Leagues ANALYSIS: It's official, the Braves will be issuing ticket price rebates to their fans after their latest attempt to field a AAA team in the NL East in 2015. What are we referring to you ask? Only the breaking news that Craig Kimbrel has been... Read More

Holds Leagues: Waiver Wire Pickups & Adds for Week 1

While the holds statistic is even harder to predict than saves for closers, the players we highlight today feature some elite setup men. The more likely an MLB team is to win, the more likely these following relief pitchers will be eligible to earn the holds that could be the difference between winning or losing in your... Read More

Edward Mujica (RP, BOS) - 2015 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper

BALLER MOVE: Draft Target in Late Rounds / Immediate Waiver Wire Add ANALYSIS: With the recent news that Koji Uehara is still nursing an injury, Edward Mujica will start the year as the fill-in closer for the Red Sox. He may wind up being in that role longer than some would expect, if Uehara can't get over... Read More

Rafael Montero (SP/RP, NYM) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in NL-Only Leagues / Dynasty Leagues ANALYSIS: The New York Mets are notoriously known as being one of the most indecisive franchises in the history of sports. However, you as a fantasy owner do not have the luxury of patience. This is where the acquisition of Rafael Montero comes into play. After Zack... Read More

Rubby De La Rosa (SP/RP, ARI) - Waiver Wire Pickups

BALLER MOVE: Add in Deep Leagues / NL-Only Leagues OWNED IN: 3% of Fleaflicker Leagues ANALYSIS: A lot of the attention in the Arizona Diamondbacks rotation towards the end of Spring Training was geared towards Archie Bradley. This is a completely warranted opinion given the state of the rotation as a whole. However, an overlooked potential starter with... Read More

How to Use Positional Scarcity and Depth to Your Advantage

Position scarcity and depth are topics of great debate every draft season. Where the talent pool is deep, you can afford to wait. Where it is scarce, an early pick is often in order. During the work on my series of draft value articles using RotoBaller's ADP Draft Sleepers Tool, I examined the depth of... Read More

Spring Training Stock Watch: Fantasy Prospects On The Rise

  Over the last several weeks, we have touched on a few of the bigger name MLB prospects who have impressed this spring, solidifying their status as some of the games premier up and coming stars, like Mookie Betts, Kris Bryant, and Joc Pederson just to name a few.   As we near the conclusion... Read More

Jenrry Mejia (RP, NYM) - 2015 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper

BALLER MOVE: Draft Late as a 3rd Closer in Mixed Leagues ANALYSIS: If post-save celebrations were ranked, The Mejia Stomp would have to be one of the greats. Granted there isn'€™t a huge pool of post-save celebrations but it would still be up there. Jenrry Mejia holds a particularly low ADP at 223 for a player... Read More

Fantasy Baseball Spring Stock Watch: Opening Day Is Almost Here

Can you believe it? We are less than one week away from Opening Day when Jon Lester and the Chicago Cubs square off with the Adam Wainwright and the St. Louis Cardinals. These two storied franchises are poised to write the opening chapter in a new rivalry on national television. The young upstarts, playing without... Read More

MLB Closer Breakdown: NL West Edition - 2015 Fantasy Baseball

We previously looked at the closer and bullpen situations in the AL East, AL Central, AL West, NL East, and NL Central. Today we chck out the NL West. Make sure to also bookmark our MLB Closer Depth Charts, which are updated every day for your viewing pleasure.   Arizona Diamondbacks Head Honcho – Addison Reed ; Next... Read More

Auction Draft Strategy: How to Manage Your Budget

We previous looked at Part 1 (How to Prepare for Auction Drafts) and Part 2 (Five  Key Mistakes to Avoid Making) of our Auction Draft Strategy series. Today we look at how to budget your team's salary. The most important strategy for auction drafts is how to budget your allowance. Keeping track of how your dollars are... Read More

Drew Storen (RP, WSH) - 2015 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper

BALLER MOVE: Draft in Middle Rounds of All Leagues. ANALYSIS: The Washington Nationals have an imposing team top to bottom. They have the power, the speed and the glory to set the baseball world on fire on offense. The pitching staff has tremendous depth that would rank high on many teams. In their bullpen, Drew Storen is... Read More

Zach Britton (RP, BAL) - 2015 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper

BALLER MOVE: Target Mid-to-Late Rounds in All Leagues ANALYSIS: Big time talent Zach Britton transitioned from elite starting pitching prospect to full time closer last season, and boy did that work out for the Orioles. Britton finished his first season in that role with 37 saves and a 1.65 ERA. The only thing holding Britton back... Read More

Fantasy Baseball Spring Training Stock Watch: Veterans On The Rise

Earlier in the week here in the RotoBaller Stock Watch, we took a look at some fantasy prospects on the rise, who have a legitimate shot to break camp with a starting gig in-hand. A pair of prospects who we didn’t mention in that space, who went out and dominated on Wednesday night were Carlos... Read More

Predicting the Top Ten Finishers for Saves in 2015

  Saves can be one of the most volatile categories for fantasy owners. Often, a pitcher will have the closer’s role seemingly locked up only to be ousted after a slow start to the season. Many believe that the only key to racking up a lot of saves is to pick a closer for a winning team.... Read More

10 Bold Predictions for the 2015 Fantasy Baseball Season

  For the last few years, the staff over at RotoGraphs has been publishing their "10 Bold Predictions" series. These are typically among my favorite reads in the realm of fantasy baseball - and considering how much content I devour, that's saying something.   Since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all, I'm... Read More

2015 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Top 300

Back in February, seven of the RotoBaller writers put together their consensus fantasy baseball rankings. Today, I'm branching out on my own to bring you RotoBaller's Top 300 for the 2015 fantasy baseball season. There's a number of players whom I like or dislike more than the expert consensus, so I'll add in a little bit of my... Read More

Brad Boxberger (TB, RP) - 2015 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper

BALLER MOVE: Draft Target in Late Rounds of All Leagues ANALYSIS: A guy you’ll want to keep on your radar this year during your fantasy drafts is Brad Boxberger. Boxberger was the setup man last year for the Rays and more than excelled in his role. He posted a 2.37 ERA, 0.84 WHIP, 104 strikeouts, 20... Read More

Santiago Casilla (RP, SF) - 2015 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper

BALLER MOVE: Draft in mid-to late rounds in all leagues. ANALYSIS: How is it that the closer on the 2014 World Series Champions is considered a sleeper for 2015? The San Francisco Giants are the San Antonio Spurs of Major League Baseball. That means a sub-par year is to be expected, right? Santiago Casilla is... Read More

Top 10 Projected WHIP Finishers for Relievers: 2015 Fantasy Baseball Rankings

In 1979 New York Times writer and inventor of rotisserie baseball Daniel Okrent created a statistic then-known as IPRAT, or “innings pitched ratio.” At a time when ERA and wins were all the rave, Okrent created a simple formula that would form the foundation of sabermetrics and eventually work its way into regular fantasy baseball... Read More

MLB Closer Breakdown: NL Central Edition - 2015 Fantasy Baseball

  We previously looked at the closer and bullpen situations in the AL East, AL Central, AL West, and NL East. Today we chck out the NL Central. Make sure to also bookmark our MLB Closer Depth Charts, which are updated every day for your viewing pleasure.   Chicago Cubs Head Honcho – Hector Rondon; Next in line –... Read More

Francisco Rodriguez (RP, MIL) - 2015 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper

BALLER MOVE: Target Mid-to-Late Rounds in All Leagues ANALYSIS: I just did a fantasy baseball draft, and let's just say that Francisco Rodriguez was taken much later than he should have been. Maybe it's the fact the he signed late this offseason, or maybe people just don't believe in his skill set. Well at his current ADP... Read More

Brett Cecil (RP, TOR) - 2015 Fantasy Baseball Sleeper

BALLER MOVE: Target Late in All Leagues ANALYSIS: Brett Cecil looks like a very attractive third closer for your fantasy team with an average ADP of 280. Cecil put up an elite 12.8 K/9 in 2014, which is up there with the best closers in the MLB. While Cecil wasn't closing in 2014, he's lined up to... Read More