Fantasy Advice: Don't Stress About Closers

Baseball's Opening Day is only a week and a half away (yes!), and for many fans, the next 8 or 9 days are going to be chock full of fantasy baseball drafts. Strategy-wise, one of the most debated issues is how to go after a closer.

Plenty of people are going to tell you that you might as well try and lock in two top-flite closers (a Mariano, Hoffman, Jenks, Ryan, et al.). The idea is you won't have to worry about the closer position for the rest of the year.

Assuming your golden boys stay healthy, that idea has merit. But it may not be the smartest move, given that by going early for those closers, you're sacrificing the chance of going after other positions that could help your team much more across the board. Besides, saves can be found for a lot cheaper later on.

Probably a dozen major league teams, at least, make a signficant change in their closer situation during the season due to injury or ineptitude. Below are as many examples I could think of from last season of free agents in most leagues who saw significant save duty:

- Justin Duchscherer
- Joe Nelson
- Salomon Torres
- Armando Benitez
- Mike Stanton
- Dan Wheeler
- Akinori Otsuka
- Francisco Cordero
- Jose Valverde
- Jorge Julio
- Eddie Guardado
- Todd Coffey

Most of these guys were only good for a month or so at a time, but they're exactly the ones you want to make a move on in order to dominate the saves category. If it means you can focus on more important areas in the draft, and still be competitive in saves through a bit of recycling, then why not?

Instead of spending high draft picks on two or three of those A-list closers, I would go for one, and pick up a second mid-level closers (projected for 20-30 saves, a Cordero or Fuentes or Dempster) much later in the draft. Your third closer will be a rotation position, which you fill whenever opportunity strikes during the season when someone gets newly anointed with a closer's job.

Whether he's filling in for injury or ineptitude, he'll help you win games for a few weeks. If he doesn't hold onto the job, get rid of him and wait for the next opportunity. As the list above demonstrates, there will be plenty of chances!