So Fantasy Baseball is just around the corner and of course I'm getting amped up. My Keeper league roster is pretty much set for the draft minus a few decisions small decisions. In my personally league every team must protect a closer and have 3 relief pitchers on their roster at all times. The three relievers I currently could keep are Jeremy Accardo, whom will most likely move back into the set up role, Trevor Hoffman, a probably Hall of Famer but getting older, or Manny Corpas the Rockies closer who burst onto the scene at the All Star Break last year. I'm obviously not going to protect Accardo so it comes down to Hoffman vs. Corpas. And well I can't make up my mind.Hoffman is, as my buddy Pete put it, the Curtis Martin of the baseball world. You never think of him as the best of the best but every single season he simply puts up numbers. In each of the last 4 seasons he's put up 40+ saves. And minus the injury plagued 2003 campaign he's put up 37+ saves in every season since 1996. That is consistent. But of course with the 40 year old Hoffman the concern lies in when will he fall off the cliff. His post All Star Break era of 4.44 and his complete blow up during the NL playoff game are a big time concern. Is that likely to carry over into this season? I don't know. Additionally Hoffman's K rate for a closer is piss poor. Last season he struck out only 44 batters in 57 innings.
On the other hand Corpas is the exact opposite as Hoffman. He's a 25 year old who received his first closing opportunity last year. After the all star break Corpas had 19 saves and two wins with only one blown save. Additionally Corpas was a beast in the postseason. In the postseason Corpas compiled 5 saves and a win in 9 games. The issue with Corpas is that the Rockies are in less close scoring games typically than the low scoring pitcher happy Padres roster.
Considering my categories are IP, K, W, ERA, S whom is the better choice. I would lean towards Corpas being more of a contributor towards IP and K and possibly ERA. Saves is the big question. As it is an entire category its what you have these closers for. If I keep Corpas and he saves 10 less games than Hoffman that could be the determining factory in winning or losing the league. However what if I keep Hoffman and Corpas emerges as the next great closer. Than I've lost my opportunity at having a superb closer every year and will need to scramble for a protected player in the future.
So who should I keep?
Comments
I believe Corpas is the better of the two, but I believe Hoffman will get more chances. That's my $0.02.