I had all the players that I wanted in my notebook. I had a plan.
Everything set........except one thing.
The Chicago Cubs had not named a Closer.
Carlos Marmol was a fantasy dream. He had been setting up Kerry Wood the year before and vultured a few Saves.
Marmol still holds the Cubs strike out record for relievers with 138.
Anyway, in 2009, Wood had left for unfriendlier confines.
But to muddle things, the Cubs signed Kevin Gregg.
Think Mark Melancon...lite. That was Kevin Gregg.
We had the hard throwing, strike out accumulating, blow away reliever in Marmol vs. soft tossing Gregg.
I drafted Marmol.
The next day, Lou Piniella announced that Gregg would be his Closer. Stupid Piniella. Worse, stupid me.
I had lost a high draft pick.
I learned a lot from that experience.
The first thing I learned is that the better fantasy pitcher does not always get the Closer's gig.
The second thing being, don't expend a high draft pick without knowing all the facts possible.
The third being that in the end, it was stupid of me to expend a high pick on a Closer without a secure job.
Fast forward to now.
We are in a peculiar situation.
Closers will not be known by most teams until three weeks or less until the season begins.
It has messed up early drafts this year.
Is Raisel Iglesias a third round pick?
Of course not.
But, there he is being drafted in the third round.
This is due to supply and demand and most teams being up in the air about their relievers.
Drafters want a secure Closer.
But are they really getting them?
There are nine teams, count 'em, nine teams who 'have their man' as Closer for the beginning of 2022.
CWS Hendriks
MIL Hader
LAA Iglesias
HOU Pressly
ARI Melancon
NYY Chapman
NYY Diaz
CLE Clase
ATL WSmith
These are not air tight. Late trades or signings could upset even these apple carts.
But, we can feel pretty secure with these nine teams.
Next, we have the 'Carlos Marmol' teams. We have teams with a real good looking pitcher. At least to us.
So we have sorta anointed these Closers....
SF Doval
STL Gallegos
TOR Romano
PHI Knebel
These pitchers have no assurance that they will be the Closer come April. The only assurance for us being that they 'look like' they should be the Closer.
We also have two 'roaming' Closers.
Kenley Jansen and Craig Kimbrel.
Of the 13 teams listed above, if Jansen or Kimbrel were obtained, they would be the Closer over the names listed for seven or eight teams.
The other 17 teams?
We are just giving it our best shot.
If the season begins on time, Closers will come in focus in March.
For us, the biggest difference in doing these crazy early DC's over the big drafts later on.
So when those big drafts do start, supply and demand will dwindle.
We will KNOW who is closing.
Raisel Iglesias, magically, will go from third round where he doesn't belong to fifth or sixth round status.
The others should slide as well.
At least, that's the way it should work.
I wouldn't wish getting Marmol'd on any drafter!
![Embarrassed :oops:](./images/smilies/icon_redface.gif)