2011 Player Rankings: Holds
Earlier this month we ranked relievers with a heavy emphasis on saves, since that’s their primary role on a fantasy team. Lots of leagues use holds as well, so here’s a ranking of the top fantasy options for holds going into 2011…
Tier One
Aroldis Chapman
Rafael Soriano
Luke Gregerson
Jonny Venters
The cream of the crop. These four won’t just give you holds, they’ve also give you a ton of strikeouts as well as low ERA’s and WHIP’s. Gregerson set the single-season holds record last year (40), and he should approach that total again assuming his arm doesn’t explode from throwing 58% sliders again.
Tier Two
Hong-Chih Kuo
Daniel Bard
Mike Adams
Rafael Betancourt
Chris Sale
Grant Balfour
Ryan Madson
More high strikeout, low ERA and WHIP guys, but this group carries just slightly more risk.
Tier Three
Sean Marshall
Brandon League
Evan Meek
Joaquin Benoit
Arthur Rhodes
Jason Motte
Tyler Clippard
Sergio Romo
League and Romo will see some save opportunities early in the season given the injuries to David Aardsma and Brian Wilson, but they’re expected to resume setup duties once those two return to action. Meek and Clippard have a chance to close should things break right this summer.
Tier Four
Matt Capps
Wilton Lopez
Alexi Ogando
Scott Downs
Kerry Wood
Koji Uehara
Takashi Saito
Downs is doing to start the year on the disabled list because of a broken toe, and Uehara could end up closing games in Baltimore as soon as Opening Day.
Tier Five
Joe Thatcher
Jordan Walden
Nick Masset
Kevin Gregg
Pedro Feliciano
Kevin Jepsen
Sean Burnett
Mike Gonzalez
Bobby Jenks
Clay Hensley
Michael Wuertz
Randy Choate
The top of the holds leaderboard is heavily populated by lefty specialists every season, but they bring little else to the table fantasy-wise.
Tier Six
Zach Braddock
Matt Belisle
Rafael Perez
Kenley Jansen
Andrew Cashner
Joba Chamberlain
Jake McGee
Javier Lopez
Octavio Dotel
Jon Rauch
Sergio Santos
Joel Peralta
Ryan Perry
Bobby Parnell
Peter Moylan
Matt Guerrier
David Hernandez
Jeremy Jeffress
Robinson Tejeda
Edward Mujica
Juan Gutierrez
Frankly, this last tier could go on and on. The last 20-30 names on this list are highly interchangeable in my eyes, especially given the volatility of relievers.
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Unlike our other positional rankings, this isn’t a consensus list with input from all the RotoGraphers. It’s my personal list, so I encourage discussion in the comments if you feel I missed someone obvious or you feel someone is ranked too high or low, especially towards the top of the rankings.
Kenley Jansen and Jordan Walden will close by June.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same with Jake Mcgee.
Yeah, Tier Six is surprising for Jansen, considering that his K/9 is 28 (approximately) and the Dodgers probably see him as their future closer, if only because he fits the type. Yes, Kuo is also awesome and has seniority, but will Jansen not get holds as well? I’ve never played in a league that had them, so I’ve never learned what kind of pitcher makes for a reliable source.
How is a 28 K/9 possible? There are only 27 outs in 9 innings…
Question for everyone: Chasing saves in fantasy is rapidly becoming the most distasteful aspect of fantasy baseball to me. Would it make sense to replace Saves with a Saves plus Holds category, so that the league could remain 5×5, and shift the focus to owning the best overall reliever pitchers, instead of the ones with the title of closer?
I use SV + HLD in one of my long-running leagues and love it. Emphasizes quality relievers and not just closers.
All four of my leagues have changed to Holds + Saves. Nobody complains about it. You get more players involved in the fantasy game. And there’s no more of that incessant worrying about closer roles. Just better all the way around.
my biggest gripe with the holds category is that so often a MR will come in to the game, allow the tying or go ahead run to score, record just 1 out to end the inning, then still pick up a win when his team scores in the next half of the inning.
So he even though he fails to do accomplish the job you have him on your team for, he stills gives improves the fantasy team in another, arguably more important, category.
And i realize that the same situation may occur with closers, but it just seems much more pronounced with MR… as often times when a closer blows a lead teh game just ends.
No, I love chasing saves. :)
Although IMO nothing wrong with saves + holds.
A couple of years ago, we changed saves to saves + half holds. The previous year, people were going around at the end of the draft to pick up useless relievers for $1 each, to fill in their rosters.
Now, middle relievers have value! I actually got a record in my NL league a couple of years ago, when I picked Kyle McLellan as my first pick for $1 and was able to keep him! No one else bid, and he ended up leading the NL in holds that year. :-)
Holds add a lot more fun & flexibility, IMHO.
From my experience holds are quite possibly the most plentiful stat in fantasy baseball.
D. Bard belongs in the top 3.
Chapman should move down as he looks to perhaps have a control issue. I think his numbers in his first full year will be Marmol-esque.
Capps should be much higher. His low BB/good GB is a nice combo and should lead to holding most of his leads and a low WHIP.
Still think Joba has a bit of a breakout in him for a MR but with the Yanks potential lack of innings from SP make him a nice pick for holds/vulture wins. I
I love using holds, we’ve used in our keeper league for 11 years and it’s worked great. Makes scrub closers not hav value, as they shouldn’t. We do have holds and Sv-Bs as two separate categories in a 6×6
i wish that you could just pick a team’s bullpen much like picking a team defense in fantasy football. you would be responsible for all the relievers from the long man to the closer. i think it would put an interesting twist on the game.
Not sure if it’s a good strategy or not but I had Chapman & Walden and was in the market for a MR who was SP eligible (5SP 2RP 2P). Hisanori Takahashi seemed like a good fit. He’s a lefty to boot so hopefully the holds will be there.
With Walden and Takahashi both in the Angels bullpen I’m hoping I can sneak 2 holds out of one game on occasion. I realize it’s not really an advantage – but either could conceivably close at some point.
I wouldn’t consider Takahashi if he wasn’t SP eligible. Probably some better options out there – but he was effective as a reliever. Converted 8 of 8 saves. He got hammered a bit as a SP but still managed a decent ERA by excelling in the pen.
I’m with Cs3. Hate holds. Worthless real life stat. That said, the holds/saves combo option is interesting if for no other reason to stop the incessant save chasing.
Andrew Cashner is going to be in the Cubs rotation, so he shouldn’t be on this list.
It would be great if fangraphs had Holds as a category I could add to my custom dashboard.
i would +10 this if i could , any projection on holds would be sweet
I agree with the commenter above regarding looking for Holds out of the SP eligible slots and rotating SPs through. That way I can plug 3 of my 4 RP/P slots with closers, and get my holds through the other P slot and 1 or 2 SP slots. Right now the two I’m leaning towards are David Hernandez or Hisanori Takahashi.
May be the wrong place to pose question like this, but if you only had room on your roster for Uehara or Motte, who would you select, and why? Assume the league counts both HLD and SV as separate categories.
I’m leaning towards Uehara because I think he has better skills, even though he seems like a greater injury risk.
Which do you think has a better chance of recording 15+ saves this season?
Thanks for any input; sorry if this is a bit too specific.
imo Motte has the better skills; and is on a better team overall in a weaker offensive division, more wins/leads = more hold opportunities … that said the both have a good shot at 15+ holds but Motte will give you K’s too (and possibly saves by the AS break)
affeldt is missing, I say tier 4.5…play in a 9×9 (add holds, qs, cg, and win%) and while other people chase saves I play the waiting game: got bard, madson, and venters…(3SP, 2RP, 1P)…don’t you love hearing about other people’s fantasy teams?