RADIO
Relief pitchers to monitor for holds or as closer handcuffs for Week 14. Rick Graham analyzes under-the-radar RP as deep league targets or waiver wire adds.
Today and every Tuesday moving forward throughout the 2018 MLB season, we will take a deep dive into some of the lesser-owned relief pitchers on the market that are worth keeping tabs on.
This can be a good tool for those in deeper holds leagues, although any pitcher in a position to make a move on their respective team's closer job will get priority.
Below are my relief pitchers to target for Week 14 of the fantasy baseball season. Let's get to it.
Under-the-Radar Relievers to Watch - Week 14
Diego Castillo, Tampa Bay Rays - 1% owned
Although not a top prospect in the Rays organization (27th by MLB.com), Castillo has a huge arm with a fastball that sits 97 and a hard slider that gets up to 90. He's cruised through AA and AAA the past two seasons rather easily, showing good strikeout ability (122 K's over 98 innings), command (27 BB's) and ability to finish games (19 saves). He's carried over those same numbers in his first 15 innings at the big league level, and while his K rate is a bit down, it's still over a K per inning to go with a respectable 12.6 SwStr%. He's only allowed three runs in those 15 innings and the Rays are rewarding him with some high leverage set up work, as he now has six holds on the year, three of which came in his last three outings. Serio Romo is pitching well at the moment but he's far from a sure bet to keep the Rays closer job the entire season and if/when he falters, expect to hear Castillo's name in the mix to replace him.
Adam Conley, Miami Marlins - 1% owned
Conley once again proved to be a disaster as a starter, this year in AAA he made 8 starts and held an ERA, FIP, and xFIP all over 5. Despite this, the Marlins decided to promote him anyway in late May and use him strictly out of the bullpen and the transition couldn't have gone much better for the Marlins or Conley. Now 17 innings deep into the season, he has only allowed 3 earned runs and has three holds in his last five outings. He's throwing all of his pitches 4-5 MPH harder out of the pen and is sitting at a career-high 14.5 SwStr% and career low 2.08 BB%. We've seen failed starters turn into dominate relievers fairly often lately, and Conley looks to be another one to continue the trend.
Tim Peterson, New York Mets - 0% owned
Being a 27-year-old rookie, Peterson has slowly worked his way through the Mets organization after converting to a full-time reliever in 2015. He doesn't throw hard, average around 91 on his fastball, but features a pretty nasty splitter and a solid slider. It's easy to point to his .154 BABIP and say he's just been really lucky this year but he gets a lot of hitters to chase (27.7% O-Swing) and he's also been able to miss bats at a high rate (15%). He may be an HR risk as well with that repertoire, but if he can limit those, he should be alright for low ratios and a 10 or higher K/9 rate. With the rest of the Mets bullpen struggling lately, it could open the door for Peterson to earn some more hold opportunities (just two on the year so far).
