Notes

Emilio Bonifacio - Adds to his to steals total. Now has 4 steals for the young year. Steals is a category in fantasy and this guy is someone you should throw into you OF or UTIL spot. Ride the hot hand and see what it can give you.

Closers - I preach grabbing a solid closer or two in the draft early so you can make sure you don't have to worry about saves throughout the year. Here is my proof. What did the elite guys do when during the first couple of days. Check out Nathan, F-Rod, Papelbon, Lidge, and Broxton do? Exactly, if you didn't grab an elite closer or two, it'll come back and haunt you through hours of looking up saves and monitoring closers.

Jeter - Looks fine in the lead off position so far. Hope it continues. He even gave you a stolen base and a home run. Not too shabby.

Koji Uehara - Threw 5 innings against the Yanks and only allowed 1ER. Very solid start to his MLB career. This is a decent option for a 4th starter in mixed leagues. I'm not too high on him though. If he has a few good quality starts, try and find a Japanese loving fantasy owner and deal him off.

Brandon Lyon - If you have him as a closer well that sucks. Make sure to have Zumaya on your DL because he is going to return and be the closer. Lyon is terrible. Simple as that.

Opening Day

Okay, officially it was on Sunday but I don't consider that opening day since there was only one game played.

The fantasy season is officially here and for most of us this day couldn't come sooner. Here are a few things I noticed on the first day. Oh yeah, hope all your drafts went smoothly.

CC Sabathia - Don't worry, do you remember his start to last season? Enough said.

Mets Bullpen - If you want to grab some Holds look no further than the Mets revamped bullpen. I believe these boys will give all the starters in the rotation a boost in wins. See if you can grab a few guys from their bullpen and also maybe one of their starters.

Aaron Harang - He ended up with a loss but overall I am very impressed with his stuff. Owners who drafted him late will get a nice return at years end. For guys who want to trade for him, why not. The guy who drafted him might just look at the loss and figure he's on the road for another terrible year.

Emilio Bonifacio - Guy had 3SB's. This might be a guy who turns into a Dave Roberts or Podsednik. If you have room, grab him and stash him on your bench to see if he can continue his stealing ways. Had 6SBs in 157 at-bats last year. Keeps it up for the entire year and that could turn into 30+ steals. Value!!!!

Cliff Lee - That is why I don't draft starters early. Had a great year last year and it seems he'll be back to his days as a normal starter in the bigs.

Justin Verlander - What is wrong with this guy. If I had him on my team I would sit him on the bench for a few starts until he straightens things out. Not droppable...not yet!!

Closers - Make sure to pay attention to the closer situations throughout the league. These are the guys that can make a difference in the standings.

Saves in Review for June 2

The Usual Suspects
Lidge (14), Sherrill (18), Nathan (15), Torres (6), Capps (11), F.Rod (22), and Wood (15).

Stupid BS
Gregg (3) with 1ER
Smoltz (1) with 2ER

I think I will stop writing this post everyday unless there is some news of a closer who might lose his closers role. I think it is getting pointless for me to post about closers who continually get saves night in and night out.

Saves in Review for June 1

The Usual Suspects
Lidge (13), Franklin (6), and Wood (14).

Stupid BS
Hoffman (3) with 3ER and a loss.
Ryan (1) with 2ER and a loss.

Technically not a loss, Putz with 4ER's and the loss.

Saves in Review for May 30

The Usual Suspects
Wood (13), Papelbon (15), CJ Wilson (11), Rivera (14), Borowski (4), Franklin (5) with 1ER, Rauch (12), and Jones (8).

Saves in Review for May 29

The Usual Suspects
Hoffman (11), Franklin (4), and B. Wilson (16).

Saves in Review for May 28

The Usual Suspects
Jenks (14), Torres (4), Nathan (14), Ryan (12), Putz (6), and Rauch (11).

Stupid BS
Saito (3) with 1ER and Gregg (2) with 1ER.

Eye Openers
Wheeler (1) made his first saves of the season after Percival left with an injury. Pick up Wheeler ASAP!!

Saves in Review for May 27

The Usual Suspects
Wood (12), Wagner (10), F. Cordero (11), B. Wilson (15), Street (12), and Hoffman (10).

Stupid BS
Nathan (1) 1ER. Nothing to worry about.

Saves in Review for May 26

The Usual Suspects
Torres (3), Wood (11), and Jenks (13)

Light schedule tonight.

Saves in Review for May 25

The Usual Suspects
Gregg (10) and a Win in the same day, can you ask for anything more?!?, Rivera (12), CJ Wilson (10), Ryan (11), and Street (11).

Stupid BS
Putz (3) 2ER's, Walker (2) 1ER, Marmol (1) 1ER technically not the closer but people do own him for the odd save opportunity, Sherrill was technically not a save opportunity but still got a loss and couldn't hold the opponent from scoring.

Side Note
I did not mention the 18 inning marathon game, between the Red and Padres, where there were numerous "Stupid BS", so if you would like to take a look here is the Box Score.

Saves in Review for May 24

The Usual Suspects
F.Rod (21), Torres (2) will be sharing with Mota, Borowski (3) welcome back, and Street (10).

Side Note
Brocail of the Astros had a save but only because Valverde was getting some needed rest.

Saves in Review for May 23

The Usual Suspects
Valverde(15)with 2ER's, Percival(14), F. Rod(20), F. Cordero(10), and Franklin(3).

Stupid BS
Wagner(2) with 1ER and Hoffman(3L) (technically only a loss and not a save)

Saves in Review for May 22

The Usual Suspects
CJ Wilson (9) did some clean-up work for Benoit, Papelbon(14), Lidge(12), Ryan(10), and Jenks(12).


The Eye Openers
Ohman (1) of the Braves had a save against the Mets. Nothing to this save, if you have room, pick him up to back up Acosta.
Dolsi (1) of the Tigers had a save but was, again, one of those weird saves where he came in during the 6th inning. Jones is still the closer in Detroit.

Saves in Review for May 21

The Usual Suspects
B. Wilson(10), Gregg(9), F.Rod(19), Valverde(14), and Saito(8)

Stupid BS
Fuentes (3) with 2ER's

Side Note
Clay Condrey of the Phillies recorded his first save of the season and only his 3rd of his career. This was one those strange saves where he came in during the 6th inning and held the lead. So, don't expect anything new with respect to the closers role in Philly.

Saves in Review for May 20

The Usual Suspects
Lidge(11), Papelbon(13), F-Rod(18), Jones(7), Gregg(8), Valverde(13), Jenks(11), Acosta(3), B. Wilson(13) 2ER's, Hoffman(9), Saito(7), and Percival(13) 1ER.

Stupid BS
Rauch (1) 1ER but wasn't a save opportunity.

Eye Openers
Eric Gagne again, adding 2ER's to his so far impressive 2008 resume.

Saves in Review for May 19

Quiet night on the saves front.

The Usual Suspects
Fuentes (6), Percival (12) 1ER, and Saito earned his 2nd win of the season.

Stupid BS
Wilson (2) 1ER.

Saves in Review for May 18

The Usual Suspects
Wood (10), Cordero (9), Rauch ( 10), Valverde (12), Putz (5), and Ryan (9)

Stupid BS
Bell (2) with 2ER's but at least he gave you 3K's.

Eye Openers
Masset (1) only because Jenks pitched back to nights on Fri and Sat.

Saves in Review for May 17

The Usual Suspects
Capps (10) 1ER, Wagner (9), Papelbon (12) 1HR, Ryan (8), Sherrill (17), Fuentes (5), Jones (6), Jenks (10), and Putz (4).

Stupid BS
Kobayashi (1) 3ER's after back to back saves.

Eye Openers
Saito with 1ER not a save opportunity.
Street with 3ER not a save oppotunity
Timlin (1) only because it was the second game in a double header and Papelbon already pitched in the first game.

Isringhausen

The struggling closer for the Cardinals, Jason Isringhausen, was placed on the 15-Day DL with a right hand laceration. The injury was not reported as to where and when it was sustained but reports coming out of the Cards camp is he cut it when he hit a TV in frustration while in La Russa's office.

Owners, should be a little relieved at the moment because his status is kind of solidified right now, he's on the DL. Put him on your DL and see if he can come back mentally and physically strong. Closers in fantasy baseball are vital to the success of any team so keep him and see if he can come back to earn some valuable saves in a couple of weeks. What ever you do, don't drop him, unless you are in dire need of help.

Sherrill

George Sherrill, closer for the Orioles, notched his 10th save of the season and has cemented himself as a top closer with respect to value in 2008. With the Orioles starting out strong with 15 wins I don't believe Sherrill will continue to provide such top-tier fantasy value for the entire season. After watching a few innings of his work I do see some promising stuff. This kid can toss and will give you saves. Remember, even on a last place team there will be 60-70 wins. Plus, with a bad team comes wins that are by 1-2 runs which allows for plenty of save opportunities.

Shop Sherrill around and see what kind of high profile bat or starter you can grab. If you can get another owner to completely believe in Sherrill you might be in line for a nice return. If you can't find someone, it's not the worst thing in this world to have a closer who will give you 30+ saves.

Sell Sherrill at a high value.