Myers, Estrada and Chatwood: SP Qualified Relievers
Before the season started, fellow writer Chad Young examined a few starter eligible relievers. He had some great recommendations like Alexi Ogando and Alfredo Aceves. Today, I am going to examine a few more SP qualified relievers that Chad did not look at in his article.
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Brett Myers (91%, 53%) – Myers looks to be the Cadillac of relievers that are starter qualified because he is the only one currently picking up saves. On a starter’s off day, Myers can just be plugged into the starter’s roster spot thereby giving a team an extra slot picking up saves. While Myers is not playing for a team that will rack up a ton of wins for him to save, they are still saves. If he is able to close for the entire season, his number of saves should be around 30.
The 31-year-old has pitched decently in the 3 games he has appeared in so far this season. Currently, he has a not allowed a run and has 3 Ks in 2 IP. With the move from starter to reliever, he has been able to add 3 MPH to his fastball. While the sample size is not in any way significant, he seems to have adjusted to the bullpen.
Myers may not be available on the waiver, but he could be a trade target. Most teams will not be coveting a reliever for the Astros. See if he can be picked up cheaply.
Tyler Chatwood (0%, 0%) – Tyler’s counting stats look great so far this season with 1 Win, 1 Save and 6 strikeouts in 7 innings pitched. His main problem is that he is getting those stats while not being one of Colorado’s setup men. He is a long closer. The long closer for Colorado may have opportunities to get into a high scoring game and vulture a Win. I would not count on it though. By not being a setup man, he will be out of the running for Holds.
So far this season, he has seen seen his K% almost double going from 12% to 21%. The main cause for the increase is that hitters are swinging at pitches out of the strike more and making less contact on those pitches.
I don’t see a reason to own Chatwood in all but the deepest of leagues. He is not going to get a chance for many Holds, not alone Saves. I would look to pick almost any of the other SP qualified relievers first.
Marco Estrada (0%, 0%) – Estrada, like Chatwood, is in the long reliever role. While he has been able to record 1 Hold so far this season, he doesn’t look to be in line for many more opportunities. In 5 games this season so far, he has never been brought in after the 6th inning.
Marco has always been able to strikeout hitters. His career K/9 is 8.8. His main downfall is his 3.3 BB/9. It is difficult to roster a reliever that will pick up no Wins, Holds or Saves with a sub 3 K/BB.
Colorado has another sneaky starting pitching eligible reliever in Esmil Rogers. I have that guy all over my watchlist. His average fastball has jumped up a couple of ticks as a reliever to 96.
I ask this with complete sincerity and a genuine desire to understand: in what context does it usually happen that one needs to squeeze a reliever into an SP slot? Most leagues have 2-3 SP, 2-3 RP, and 3-5 P slots… I have a hard time imagining rostering more than 6 relievers in such a format, unless the IP cap is extremely low, you are pursuing a very extreme SP-streaming strategy (keeping only 1-2 SP at a time), or the league setup is very non-standard. In all of my IP-capped leagues I have at least 2 more relievers than anyone else, and I still have never run up against this constraint – there are simply too many “P” slots for it to matter.
I play in a points league with a max innings pitched limit. Because of this, SP-closers can be HUGE difference makers when they come along. I sold Alfredo Aceves for a bundle to a team that had already filled all 3 RP slots and the lone P-slot with closers. They give many more points-per-inning-pitched than even the best starters.
Ah, that is a good example. I have never played in a points league – that makes sense.
I use the SP slots in all of my normal Roto leagues. Say I was using your format listed above, I would fill all of the RP and P slots with relievers daily (that is the number of relievers I would roster, not including SP-eligible ones). The reason I do this is that I want the benefit of having cheap ratio boosters (relievers generally have better ERA, WHIP, and K/9 than starters because they don’t have to pace themselves), and I can’t know when a reliever is going to come into the game. In order to maximize the effect, having SP-eligible relievers is essential. Guys like Chapman, Myers, Estrada, Ogando, and last year Aaron Crow, can give solid ratios, and even pitch in a save (or hold) once in a while.
There is no reason that I have to be extreme-streaming to utilize SP-eligible relievers effectively. Even if I am rostering 6-7 SP’s, it is rare that more than 2 will start on the same day. Thus there is almost always an open lineup slot that can be filled with an SP-eligible reliever.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Your last paragraph illustrates my confusion. In a league with 2 SP, 2 RP and 4 P, having 6-7 SP’s and so many relievers that you need to rely on SP-eligible relievers to squeeze in an extra reliever implies that you have 7 relievers (2 RP + 4 P + 1 of the SP slots) in addition to the 6-7 starters. So you would be rostering 13-14 pitchers, 5-6 of whom are on your bench at any given time. In most standard leagues that would mean you have no hitters on your bench (or in fact not even enough hitters to fill out a lineup), which I doubt you are actually doing. Hence my confusion. Is this something you only do in leagues with very deep benches?
In the leagues I use them most, I have a no P slots, just RP and SP (one is 6 SP, 2RP, and P). It all depends on the league setup.
I find them useful in any league with IP limit. Relievers usually have better rate stats.
No P slots would do it. I get the value of having lots of relievers in IP-capped leagues; my confusion was just arising from the fact that I have never played in a league without 3+ P slots, which gives you just about all the room you could ever need without having to think about SP/RP eligibility.
In my league we do both Holds and Saves (which I highly recommend, it opens the game up to a lot of excellent baseball players who are largely ignored in traditional formats). In this case we have 3 RP slots and 3 generic P slots and almost every team in the league has filled them with 3 pitchers who produce Saves and 3 who produce Holds – you need that just to keep pace in both categories. A team with Alexi Ogando and Alfredo Aceves can have 4 pitchers producing in both columns, a marked advantage.
“Myers looks to be the Cadillac of relievers that are starter qualified because he is the only one currently picking up saves.”
Myers isn’t the only one. Aceves is also closing out games for Boston. Which brings me to my question. I’m currently holding both on my team but can’t decide which one I should trade. Anyone have any thoughts on who they think will be of more value when the season comes to an end?
Myers might get traded into a non closing role (Astros are actively shopping him) and Aceves might lose his role to Bailey when hes back (if hes ever back).
I play in a daily H2H each category league. RP that have SP eligibility (and decent ratios) are invaluable because you can use them in your SP slots to fish for extra saves and other counting stats on days your starters aren’t pitching. I own Ogando and Myers just for that reason.
I’m also in a weekly league where the opposite is true: SP with RP eligibility have great value because a single start will usually give you more IP and counting stats than a whole week of a reliever. I’d like to see an article about that as well.