The Closer Report: May 20, 2009

Saves: 14

Save Opportunities: 14

14 save day for fantasy baseball, Bell and Broxton continue hot streaks

By Todd Farino, www.thecloserreport.com

I thought yesterday was a great day for closers, but today was amazing. 14 of the 17 games were saved and there wasn't one blown save.

To start, Kerry Wood rebounded from his disastrous blown save yesterday, but didn't make it easy on himself. He walked the bases loaded before striking out Teahen and DeJesus to end the game. Watching this game I felt he got lucky. Teahen and Dejesus were over anxious and swung at a OK cutter and some nasty curveballs pitches. This will go down as a bad outing as far as management is concerned.

Matt Lindstrom pitched in both games of a doubleheader and recorded 1 save. He preserved the 8-6 win in game one with a perfect inning and a strikeout. He had the exact same performance in game 2, but came in with a tie score. Lindstrom looked outstanding today. He commanded all his pitches and looked like the closer we expected him to be.

Back in the American League, Brad Ziegler made his first save appearance since his bout with the flu. He looked fine pitching a perfect inning and striking out one batter. Hopefully Ziegler gets his job back after this great performance. Don't go dropping Andrew Bailey so fast. Bailey pitched two innings yesterday, and another inning on May 17th. I figure he was getting rested and Ziegler got the call. Since the A's want Ziegler at closer he should get his job back, but he will be on a short list.

Broxton and Bell continued there race of dominance bothing getting their 11th save. Bell was perfect again with 2 strikeouts, while Broxton gave up an hit and oddly didn't strikeout anyone. Easily one of these guys will be my #1 closer on Sunday.

Matt Capps and Mariano Rivera notched their 8th save of the season. Capps had a clean inning, but Rivera had to go 1.1 innings and gave up a home run to rookie Nolan Reimold.

Another significant save was David Aarsdma. He notched his fifth save of the season with a easy inning. The thing to worry about is Brandon Morrow has yet to pitch since he lost the closer job. The manager said he was going to get Morrow in quickly so he doesn't rust and he even warmed up during the Red Sox series. Hopefully this has to do with tight games and nothing to do with injury.

Chris Sampson recorded his 2nd save of the season securing a 6-4 win. He's been closing games for LaTroy Hawkins who is day-to-day with a sore hip. I wouldn't go cutting Hawkins or even picking up Sampson. He's been solid this year, but Hawkins could be back sooner then later. If you have a free roster spot, pick him up for a few possible saves.

Other Saves -

Fernando Rodney (7) - Two straight days with a save.

Ryan Franklin (10) - get hammered for an ER and a WHIP of 3.00. Still, his ERA is 1.56.

Bobbie Jenks (9) - Great performance, lowered his ERA to 2.57 on the season.

Jon Rausch (1) - Came in to save the 11-8 game in the 13thinng. He gave up a solo home run against Dan Uggla and besides that pitched well. Qualls wasn't avaible after pitching the 11th and 12th innings for the win.