New Closers to Grab

There are still chances to make up saves down the stretch this season. Some MLB teams are still in turmoil with closers due to inconsistencies and injuries.  The four teams that come to mind this week are all mostly west coast teams; Oakland, San Fran, San Diego and Milwaukee.

In Oakland Cook was the man for a good 60 day stretch but now he cannot go back to back games pitching. With at least 1 days rest he has a 0.24 ERA in 38 innings and with no rest he has given up 12 runs in 9 innings. Look to Balfour to get Saves down the stretch.

The Giants situation is very muddled. Botchy has plans to realign his bullpen. We have seen former closer Casilla in the 6^th. We have seen Romo in the 8^th and 9^th, then we see Affeldt get a 4 out Save recently.  From this point on I feel it will be both Romo and Affeldt. If you need one, I would go with Romo and his 10.8K/9 along with his career 0.90 WHIP.

San Diego took another hit when Huston Street went down with a strained calf. There is no hurry to bring him back so in the mean time Gregerson and Thayer will be another closer by committee. Yes Thayer has done well this year but he wasn’t even supposed to make the team out of spring training. If I had to grab one it would definitely be Gregerson and his potent strike out ability for road games. At home either would be serviceable.

Axford went from bullpen help, to Closer, to Elite Closer, to fallen Closer , to demoted. After blowing another lead this year (8 blown saves) Axford has been emoted for the 2^nd time. On comes Jim Henderson…who? I know…all 8innings pitched in the bigs Jim Henderson. He was fairly dominating in the PCL. He posted an ERA under 2.00 with a 56 Ks in 48 innings. Use at your own risk.