[...]

If you've played fantasy baseball long enough, you've heard some variation of the phrase "don't pay for saves" before. If you're new to the fantasy baseball community, you'll get used to it soon enough. The long-form version, for those of you who are indeed trying out fantasy baseball for the first time, is this: bullpen usage is volatile (especially these days) and saves are an incredibly arbitrary stat to begin with, so don't sacrifice high draft picks on closers.[...]

[...]

[...]

One of the biggest challenges that fantasy baseball owners face is that they literally have to follow it every day. Unlike fantasy football, where you only need to check lineups once a week, baseball is on every single day and if you dont pay attention your season will be in jeopardy. Most leagues are won not at the draft - but making smart decisions on the waiver wire, being the first person to jump on the rookie call-up from the minors, or sniping the player fresh off the disabled list is a hu[...]

Moving right along with our pre-season coverage of the bullpens around the league, let's give the American League Central a look. Most "baseball people" are predicting the AL Central to be one of the worst divisions in the league in 2019, but that doesn't mean there won't be plenty of fantasy value coming out of the bullpens.[...]

A tough position to evaluate is that of relief pitchers, as a lot of success for closers comes from success from teams. There are also a lot of bullpens by committee these days, further stifling the value of closers.That being said, only four of the pitchers that ranked in the top-10 in saves in 2017 followed up in 2018. One of those pitchers had a huge jump in saves, but [...]

[...]

Minnesota Twins relief pitcher Addison Reed will go on the paternity list to finish this week and will not travel west with the team after Wednesday's game. He'll have until Sept. 25 to return to the team for the final homestand of the season. Reed has struggled this year to a 4.67 ERA, 1.44 WHIP and career-low 7.0 K/9 over just 54 innings. A popular sleeper for saves to begin the year, Reed hasn't managed to save any games in 2018.

The buzz around preseason football means we are making our way closer and closer to fantasy baseball playoffs! While parity can be an issue in some fantasy leagues, once you make the playoffs, you're facing off against some pretty solid owners. We're sure you loyal Rotoballer readers are well on your way to another playoff berth, and when things are that close, it could all come down to one save, one hold, a few ERA points, a couple of strikeouts...it's going to be close. A new closer may be [...]