Trade Deadline Fantasy Closer Spin

Act quickly! With all of the deadline deals, your fantasy closers may not be closing anymore and you will need to make moves before someone else does.  Here’s the rundown.

Eric Gagne to the Red Sox
With Gagne being traded to the Red Sox, you can be assured that he won’t be taking the spot of Papelbon in the role of tasty save maker.  With Akinori Otsuka getting fourth, fifth, and sixth opinions on his stained forearm, your best bet is to pick up Joaquin Benoit of the Rangers.

Octavio Dotel to the Braves
Kudos to all of those astute fantasy owners who kept Joakim Soria.  With Dotel gone to Atlanta you can be sure Soria will be back to his old self adding saves to your team.  Don’t believe the hype around Zack Grienke, he won’t be doing anything so don’t be foolish enough to pick him up off the wire. Dotel owners (this includes me): sorry about your luck. There is little chance he will push Wickman out of the closer’s role in Atlanta so scramble for saves by picking up either Benoit or Jamie Walker in Baltimore (until Chris Ray gets back) to pick up a few cheap saves.  Other than that, pray with me and keep your fingers crossed that Wickman’s arm shatters into a million pieces so you can pounce on Dotel and pick him up again.

Takashi Saito is still closing games in Los Angeles
The Dodgers were not able to put together a package attractive enough to lure Dotel to LA, so Saito owners can breathe easy knowing he is still the closer.  I don’t see Broxton getting many save ops since Saito is feeling like a young man again after his cortisone shot. In reality though, he is an old man and could break down at any second so keep an eye on any injury reports coming out of Chavez Ravine.