Save Strategy and Soriano

If your leagues are anything like mine, saves are hard to come by. Sure, new closers come into the picture from time to time - your Dave Aardsma's and Fernando Rodney's of the world. But inevitably in my leagues some jerk ends up snagging them up, literally within seconds of the news breaking. It's like a horse race to grab any closer that comes to light, no matter how temporary. Last season, I was watching the Rays game when Troy Percival hurt his leg (or whatever it was the elderly bum hurt). I saw Dan Wheeler walking onto the field and had logged into my league, literally before he even made it to the mound. Guess what. He was already taken!!! Another owner had also been watching the game, logged in, and grabbed Wheeler before I could. We're talking a 20-30 second window. That's how quickly a new closer can get snatched up in some leagues. There are a number of solutions to this problem. One of them is handcuffing your closers, but that's not always feasible. For one thing, you may have 3 or 4 closers and now you're wasting that many more roster spots on handcuffs. The other problem is that it can be hard in some cases to determine who would be next in line. Another option is trying to anticipate what closer might be either in the hot seat or injury prone, and simply grab their backup. For instance, a ton of people owned Carlos Marmol last year because, let's face it, Kerry Wood has never been the face of durability. This year, owners who anticipated the Brandon Lyon debacle and grabbed Fernando Rodney early on have been rewarded to the tune of 11 saves thus far, and did so without having to win that proverbial horse race. The final solution is to simply grab up a reliever who has been lights-out, reap the benefits of his pitching prowess, and hope he gets the chance to save some games. One guy who can help you do that right now is Rafael Soriano of the Braves. If you're not familiar with Soriano, let me fill you in. He was traded from Seattle to Atlanta prior to the 07 season for Horacio Ramirez, who is currently stinking up a Royals uniform. He was slated to be the Braves closer last year but multiple DL trips cost him much of the season. This year, Soriano is the Braves’ setup man, and must have neglected to pay his electric bill because he's been lights-out. Ok, that was pretty lame. Nevertheless, he has been stellar and has even had the chance to rack up saves in certain situations. In his first two months, Soriano is carrying a .98 ERA and .87 WHIP - both outstanding numbers. He has also struck out 37 batters in just over 27 innings, putting his K/9 rate at a staggering 12.04. The guy hasn't given up an earned run in almost a month and oh, by the way, picked up his 5th save of the season last night. Bobby Cox seems to be happy with Gonzalez in the closer role, but scenarios such as last night’s have given Soriano a chance to get the saves. Last night, Gonzalez came in in the 8th to face a pair of lefties, which opened the 9th up for Rafael. Soriano is only owned in 28% of ESPN and 49% of Yahoo leagues. While Soriano can't be relied on to rack up a ton of Saves from here on out unless Gonzalez gets hurt, he can be expected to produce a handful more Saves and deliver some more fantasy goodness along the way.

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