AL only relief pitcher strategy

Bat Boy Joined: Feb 29, 2004 Posts: 5

My draft is only 1 week away, and I am trying to come up with a winning pitching strategy involving relief pitchers. I want to draft a number of quality middle relievers, and hopefully get a 3 or 4 headed monster that puts up stats equavalent to any stud starter

My league is an 8 team, AL only, 5X5 rotoserie league, 1200 innings limit, auction style draft.

I would like to draft 1 closer, 2-4 stud middle reliever, and 4-5 starters. What middle

Has anyone tried this approach?

And which middle relievers should i target for this appraoch.

Scott Sheilds
Zumaya
????

Manager Joined: Mar 15, 2007 Posts: 87

I use a similar approach in almost every league I'm in, although I prefer having two closers. Good candidates are:

Shields
Zumaya
Duchscherer
Otsuka/Gagne
Rodney
Neshek

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 3:44 pm

In an 8 team league that may not even be needed. I know it's AL only but there will be a few SP's out there to grab. I would still target guys like Shields since he has had a bunch of vulture wins the last 2 years. Zumaya is a stat hog and should of course be owned in all formats.

It's not a bad strategy to deploy in an AL only league but may not be all the necessary with only 8 teams. Other owners will be targeting those 2 guys in the draft also.

I'm Ya Pushaa...

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 4:15 pm

The whole idea of forgoing SP is so that you can draft offense in it's place. In a strategy like this, you use two mid-round picks on some good closers and then focus on hitting until late.

And Prozakk is right, you may be able to nab some SP's late too. Guys like Padilla, James Shields, maybe Kevin Millwood (depending on the owners).

But I would probably go hitters for at least the first three to five rounds then try getting KRod or Nathan, if one goes take the other one with your next pick if possible.

Failing that, with Putz hurting, I'd probably look for a guy like Street, Jenks or Ryan two rounds later, maybe only 1. It's a draft-day call and it would depend for me who's on the board still. You should be able to get Gagne, Dotel, and Borowski fairly later on in the closer run.

For RP's who might have closing opps:
Zumaya (probably going to go high enough to defeat the point)
Otsuka (good save candidate)
Rodney
Neshek
Duchscherer
Calero
Shields is good, though hasn't looked great in ST and has been overworked in recent years.

Near the end of the draft, take Orvella, Brandon League, Kyle Farnsworth.

Should you still need some guys, download our projection files and look for RP's with K/9 greater at 8 or higher and K/BB above 2.

Manager Joined: Apr 20, 2005 Posts: 60

Chris Ray would be a great guy to target with this kind of strategy. I have seen him going in rounds 9-11.