Despite being taken first among Toronto’s three options at closer in mock dtrafts, Tim Dierkes of Roto Authority doesn’t believe Scott Downs will be shutting games down for the Blue Jays this year.

We can’t blame the Jays for possibly going with Kevin Gregg or Jason Frasor in the ninth inning of games this year. The left-handed Downs converted just nine of 13 save opportunities, and the Jays just signed Gregg to a 1-year deal Feb. 5. Gregg saved 23 games last year for the Chicago Cubs and has 84 saves over the past three seasons. We still think Frasor gets the first shot at closing this year, though. Read more »

Name recognition and marginal statistics are often times all that separates elite closers from the ‘middle class.’ There’s a steep price to be paid for both items, most of the time for fantasy owners who want to lock down their bullpens, then shift their focuses elsewhere for the rest of the season.

That’s one form of bullpen shopping. But the other, more popular, way to obtain help involves a season-long dedication to bargain hunting and scavenging for saves. Like a housemom fixated on clipping coupons, a hustling fantasy owner is rewarded for his hard work with freebies and cost-effective substitutes. Read more »

We’re all about closers this week. We’ll rank ‘em 1-30 and let fantasy owners know who may or may not be on the chopping block.

As closers get injured or lose their managers’ confidence, doors open for setup men to win jobs and for fantasy owners to score on the waiver wire. Closer is the only position where playing time translates directly into fantasy value, so all it takes is one chance for a no-name player to be worth a roster spot.

Take Oakland A’s new closer Andrew Bailey, for example. No baseball fan or fantasy owner outside of the Bay Area could have told you who this guy was until this season. But, lo and behold, he starts pitching lights-out as a setup man, and suddenly finds himself as the team’s go-to reliever in the ninth inning. Read more »

Another look at the state of bullpens across Major League Baseball. About a third of teams in the league are dealing with some sort of upheaval in the late innings, which, of course, opens plenty of doors in fantasy.

The St. Louis Cardinals were quickly scrambling for a ninth-inning solution when rookie Jason Motte blew his first save opportunity. They appear to have found their man, at least for now, with veteran Ryan Franklin. The Toronto Blue Jays enter a two-week stretch with B.J. Ryan on the 15-day disabled list, and Colorado’s Huston Street has been relegated to middle relief in favor of Manny Corpas.

All of those details and more in our Week 3 closer rankings. Previous ranking is in brackets at the end of each player note. Read more »

Lights-out setup man Scott Downs will “more than likely” get first chance at filling in for injured B.J. Ryan, whom the Toronto Blue Jays placed on the 15-day disabled list Thursday afternoon. The Toronto Sun reports that Ryan had tightness in his left neck muscles.

Manager Cito Gaston hinted in the spring that Downs could see his share of save opportunities this season, regardless of Ryan’s health. Now, with Ryan on the shelf, Downs should take his dominant relief work from the eighth inning to the ninth. With a little luck, those fantasy owners who pluck Downs off waivers could wind up with 15 or more saves.

Downs has a 1.04 ERA, 0.46 WHIP and 13 strikeouts in 8.2 innings this season. The left-hander has seven career saves and a 3.95 career ERA.

Rankings are arbitrary and subject to all kinds of different perspective and opinions. At the end of the day, they don’t serve much purpose, except to stir up some controversy and serve as an entertaining read. If we’re lucky, readers will find what they’re about to read controversial, entertaining, informative and/or useful.

These kinds of lists are a little different in fantasy, especially in a publication’s ability to express a thought that’s a little outside the norm. Also, in the case of closer rankings, fantasy owners are able to check out the bottom of our list and see which stoppers may get into early trouble. Read more »