 | June 7, 2007 Coach Danko |  |
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Closer HelpFantasy owners are always scavenging the waiver wire for a cheap source of saves and there are a couple of solid long-term candidates out there that have been newly annointed the closers for their teams. The two that I'm going to touch on are Brad Hennessey in San Francisco and Matt Capps of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The recent trade of Armando Benitez from the Giants to the Florida Marlins has given Hennessey the opportunity to step up from the set-up man role. In Pittsburgh, former closer Salomon Torres pitched himself out of the job after blowing his fourth save of the season. So lets learn a little bit about these new kids on the block.
Fantasy experts currently favor Capps over Hennessey because most of them feel that Capps has superior talent. When you look at the teams, both don't figure to provide an abundance of save opportunities. San Francisco is 27-30 and Pittsburgh is 25-34. I think the Giants are the better team, so if you had to make me choose, I'd say that Bonds and company will have more leads going into the ninth inning. Both pitchers have solid holds on their jobs, so the decision pretty much comes down to whether you want the guy with a little better stuff and may ring up a few more batters (Capps) or the guy on the better team who figures to get more chances, but doesn't "wow" the scouts as much with the radar gun (Hennessey). In a decision like this one, I prefer to go with the guy on the better team. So if both are available in your league, then I'd advise you to pick up Brad Hennessey. |
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Brad Hennessey is 1-1 with a 2.82 ERA, 14 Ks, 4 BB, and 2 saves in 22.1 innings of work. His last save opportunity was last week on the day Benitez was traded and he successfully converted it, but unfortunately he's had no subsequent chances for us to evaluate. Prior to this season, he was a starting pitcher, but not a very good one at that. He throws a lot of strikes and is always around the strike zone, so in the bullpen he has been quite effective when he only has to face each hitter once. The job is his for the indefinite future and it looks like the only way he'll lose the job is if he pitches himself out of it. The only real closer-of-the-future candidate is a guy currently in Triple-A Fresno by the name of Brian Wilson (and no he's not the son of the old Beach Boy).
Matt Capps is currently 2-2 with a 2.87 ERA, 24 Ks, 6 BB, and 2 saves in 31.1 innings of work. He has had two save chances since taking over as closer and he didn't even allow a baserunner during either of the two appearances. Last season Capps was excellent out of the bullpen compiling 85 appearances and a 9-1 record. His peripheral numbers included an ERA of 3.79, a WHIP of 1.15, 56 Ks, 12 BB, and opponents hit .266 against him. The word out of Pittsburgh is that the job now fully belongs to Capps and he'll maintain his spot as long as he pitches well regardless of how Torres pitches.