The Saddest Closers Special

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ASK ROTOMAN: Is Cristopher Sanchez Pumped Enough?

Hey Rotoman,

Have a keeper question for you. I'm in an NL only league (9 teams) with $260 auction budgets. I think I have a good start on building my pitching - keeping Paul Skenes for $8, Mike King for $18, Raisel Iglesias for $19, and Cristopher Sanchez for $8. I'll fill in with guys for $5 or less in the strategy you've outlined recently.

I can keep three more guys. James Wood for $1 is a must for me. From the rest of the guys, I'm deciding between Francisco Alvarez for $4, Mark Vientos for $9, Lindor for $37, and Lars Nootbaar for $8. I'm chasing OBP, that's generally my offensive strategy.

Should I keep any of those guys over Sanchez? Any suggestions on which guys I should keep?

“Staff Infection”

Dear Si:

Starting with Skenes and King does not hurt, for sure. Iglesias should be fine, but in a nine-team league that’s probably a fair price, not a good one. And Sanchez is a good add on, if you add him on.

Let’s say you do. You need to choose three of Wood, Alvarez, Vientos, Lindor, and Nootbaar. Or four of them and cut Sanchez.

First off, you’re absolutely right to keep Wood. At that price he could be a disaster and still help your team.

I think you have to keep Alvarez. A power-hitting catcher for $4? Come on! Plus he walks a fair amount, so while his batting average may lag he shouldn’t hurt you in OBP.

Mark Vientos is a good price, too. He’s not as good with OBP, but I have him down for 25 homers and I think there are potentially more there. At that price? Yes.

Francisco Lindor is a great player and at $37 inflated dollars he is probably a fair deal, but he’s not a bargain.

As for Nootbaar, he’s a good OBP play but he’s not a strong enough offensive player to get you 600 plate appearances. So, especially in a shallower league, which at 9-teams your league isn’t shallow but shallower than trad leagues, you want to optimize real production, and Nootbaar doesn’t have the power or speed to do that.

Which means, if you believe in Cristopher Sanchez, he’s your guy. I can say that the tout community has been dogging Sanchez for years and he’s been fine. Can he be better?

Reports after his first spring start, three strikeouts in two innings, no walks, one hit allowed, say yes.

In that game, at least, he’s throwing harder yet again, displaying more muscle, more velocity (97 mph sinker!), and supposedly presaging another All-Star maybe Cy-Young year.

Early Spring Training hype is a thing, so I wouldn’t buy into this too much, but Sanchez broke out last year at the right time, and you can’t rule out another year at least as good as that one, which makes his $8 price tag a nice bargain and potential game changer.

So go ahead, make him a keeper.

Sincerely,
Rotoman

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THE SADDEST CLOSERS IN THE WORLD

Yesterday, we got through most of the closer pool, but as the workday ended we still had a few teams with difficult pens to discuss. Which brings us to now:

If you have The Fantasy Baseball Guide 2025 you can access all the text of yesterday and today’s closer material in a roughly laid out PDF by clicking here. The password is the last word in the Emmanuel Clase profile in the Guide, in lower case.