Examining Bullpens

Whenever a cloer loses his job or is on the brink of losing it owners go bananas on the Waiver Wire to grab the replacement (i.e. Huston Street went for $496 out of a $1000 annual budget in my NFBC league!). A lot of times the next guy isn't worth owning and will hurt your ERA and WHIP just you grab a few saves. I suggest that you get ahead of the curve and target pitchers with the best "skills" within the bullpen and not always the annointed back-up closer. The Florida Marlins are a prime example of this situation as most people think Nunez is the guy after Lindstrom but in reality Kiko Calero has been much more effective this season with a 2.08 ERA, 12.5 K/9, and a 4.5 K:BB ratio. As for Nunez he has a 2.84 ERA, 6.4 k/9 and a 1.5 K:BB ratio. when you just look at the 2.84 ERA, for Nunez, it can be misleading as only 21% of his balls hit in play are falling in for hits and when this number normalizes his ERA will be corrected. The Twins Bullpen has no issues with a closer but they have a young LHP fireballer who is worth a look in Jose Mijares. Mijares has only pitched 4.7 IP this season but has a 15.4 K/9 and a K:BB ratio of 8, 0.00 ERA and a .64 WHIP. The goal of this post is to get ahead of other owners so if something were to happen to Nathan the bidding on this guy would go crazy. He is also a type of pitcher that you can throw in your line-up and not be worried and about damaging any of your categories. The Oakland A's have two pitchers that should be on your radar for speculation and they are Andrew Bailey and Mike Wuertz. I have zero faith in Ziegler and I predict one of these guys start to grab saves from him very soon (Wuertz already has 2 saves). Wuertz has pitched 13.7 innings with 8.6 Ks per 9, a 1.98 ERA and a WHIP of .88. Bailey has thrown 17.7 IP has recored 3 Ws and has posted a 1.53 ERA and .74 WHIP. Wuertz has better control then Bailey but Bailey strikes more people out, so both guys could get a chance at saves this season.

Charlie Manual is concered about Myers:
"His fastball, it doesn't have the velocity it used to have, it doesn't have the movement," Manuel said. "He has to locate it. . . . He topped out around 87-88. . . . I'm concerned about it.

Other News:
Hamiliton at 85%
Joba's mom dealing Meth to Cops
Buster Olney think Crawford could get 100 Bags
Utley out with sore foot
Mike Lupica on Joba's outing
Rick Porcello impressive vs Twins
AROD goes 3-6 with 2 Bombs
Posada goes on the DL with Hamstring injury