Does Your Fantasy League Count Holds? Tips for Drafting a Relief Pitcher

For savvy fantasy baseball players, many leagues are extending statistical pitching categories by including “holds” to go along with “saves.” It certainly makes the game more intriguing, and makes relief pitchers more valuable. However, relief pitchers who get "holds" may be the most mercurial position for which to draft. Even more so than the often convoluted closer position. For this reason, I highly suggest you not attempt to do so any time prior to the end of the draft.

Here’s why:

Over the last several seasons no single relief pitcher has stood near the top of the "holds" leaders year after year. Even long-time relief stud Scot Shields fell off the map in 2009.

Last year only two pitchers had 30 or more; Minnesota’s Matt Guerrier and San Francisco’s Jeremy Affeldt each had 33. The same was true in 2008 when only three pitchers hit the 30 mark; the aforementioned Scot Shields, the Cubs’ Carlos Marmol, and the Cardinals’ Kyle McClellan had 31, 30, and 30 respectively.

So the question becomes, who do you target in your draft if your league includes "holds" as a pitching statistic? Rankings are rather a moot point.

The easy answer is the primary set-up reliever for every closer, or the next guy in line to get saves. The reason why is obvious: If there’s a game to save, it has to be held (more often than not) in the seventh or eighth inning, and you might also pick up a stray "save" here and there as well. By that same system, teams who win more games will have more "hold" opportunities. Guys who qualify at starting pitcher hold even more value as they can slip into starter slots when your SPs are on off days.

So let’s go around the league and see who these guys might be.

* Qualify at SP and RP in most leagues; ^ will fight for a rotation spot, the loser becomes set-up man.

Names in Bold are guys I especially like for success in 2010.

	AMERICAN LEAGUE
TEAM	PRIMARY SET UP MAN	KEEP AN EYE ON
Baltimore Orioles	Jim Johnson	Cla Meredith
Boston Red Sox	Hideki Okijama	Daniel Bard
Chicago White Sox	Matt Thornton	J.J.  Putz  and Tony Pena
Cleveland Indians	Joe Smith	Chris Perez
Detroit Tigers	Joel Zumaya	Bobby Seay
Kansas City Royals	Kyle Farnsworth	Juan Cruz
Los Angeles Angels	Scot Shields	Fernando Rodney
Minnesota Twins	Matt Guerrier	Jose Mijares
New York Yankees	Phil Hughes*	Joba Chamberlain*
Oakland Athletics	Brad Zeigler	Joey Devine & Michael Wurtz
Seattle Mariners	Mark Lowe	Brandon League
Tampa Bay Rays	J.P. Howell	Dan Wheeler
Texas Rangers	Neftali Perez^	Chris Ray and C.J. Wilson^
Toronto Blue Jays	Kevin Gregg	Scott Downs
	NATIONAL LEAGUE
Arizona Diamondbacks	Juan Gutierrez	Bob Howry and Aaron Hielman
Atlanta Braves	Takashi Saito	Peter Moylan
Chicago Cubs	Angel Guzman	John Grabow
Cincinnati Reds	Nick Massett	Arthur Rhodes
Colorado Rockies	Manny Corpas	Franklin Morales
Florida Marlins	Dan Meyer	Renyal Pinto
Houston Astros	Brandon Lyon
Los Angeles Dodgers	Ramon Trancosco	George Sherrill
Milwaukee Brewers	Todd Coffey	LaTroy Hawkins
New York Mets	Kelvim Escobar	Pedro Feliciano
Philadelphia Phillies	Ryan Madson	J.C. Romero
Pittsburgh Pirates	John Hanrahan
San Diego Padres	Edward Mujica*	Luke Gregerson
San Francisco Giants	Jeremy Affeldt	Sergio Romo
St. Louis Cardinals	Kyle McClellan	Jason Motte
Washington Nationals	Brian Bruney	Jason Bergmann

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