Why I "Overpay" For Saves

There are certain philosophies in fantasy sports that we have just deemed them to true. You must draft a RB with your first pick in fantasy football. If you have the number one pick, you must draft what Yahoo!/ESPN tells you is the #1 pick, and don't over pay for saves. Well I'm here to save you baby birds, do what works for you. You drafted AD with your #1 pick, you're slightly ticked off. If you drafted two wide outs like Andre Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald in the first two rounds, you're probably pretty happy. And if you overpay for a closer in fantasy baseball, that's perfectly alright as well.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the logic behind not paying for saves. Closers lose their jobs all the time and get injured in baseball, that you almost always can find saves on the waiver wire. You shouldn't waste a higher round draft pick on a closer when you can just a closer that's just as good later. That makes sense, but there's a big assumption we're making here. We're assuming that closers you get in the later rounds or in FA, will be closers you want. Plus, you're assuming that you will be able to get these closers. No matter how good the closers are on a manager's team, once a player is announced they will get save opportunities, every team in your league will scramble to get that player. There will always be players like Andrew Bailey and Ryan Franklin last year that will be the types of closers you want and can get, but think about what the chances are that you did get those players? Out of all the closers that were available for anyone in your league to pick up, what were the odds really that you picked up the right guy?

That's why I like overpaying for saves. I like to draft at least one of the top tiered guys so I always will have stability in my RP role. Last year, I drafted Mariano Rivera, which worked out splendidly for me, as I was the league leader in saves in that league. I of course waited to draft other closers, but I broke this seemingly cardinal rule of overpaying for saves. Here's an even better example. I was in a league last year where a guy drafted Mo, Jonathan Papelbon, and Joe Nathan. These three guys were the top three ranked closers in the beginning of the draft- this guy really over payed for saves. He ended up winning the league. His other pitchers were Mark Buerhle, Chris Carpenter, Edwin Jackson, Ted Lilly and Roy Halladay. He also had a damn fine offense with Raul Ibanez, Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter, and Robinson Cano.

Here's another example. In another league I was in, the only RP the guy had at the end of the year was Brian Deunsing. He took the no closer approach. He also won the league. He clearly didn't overpay for saves and it helped this guy out as well.

The point I'm trying to make is that it does not matter where you draft a closer. If you draft your first closer in the fourth round, eighth round, twelfth round, or not at all, that's fine. The key to any draft is to just find value at each position and to pick up the correct players off of the waiver wire. There's no reason you can't overpay for a closer and still get other great top tiered guys in the later rounds.

Last year, Jonathan Broxton, David Aardsma, and Heath Bell were all top ten RP and you could have gotten them MUCH later in your draft. But the best RP was Joe Nathan (2nd off the board in most leagues) and the 3rd best was Mo (3rd off the board in most leagues). If I take the 3rd closer off the board, and he ends up being the 3rd best closer in the league, then I got exactly what I expected out of my player when I drafted him. I want every player that I draft to be the best at his position. If that guys happens to be a guy like Ryan Zimmerman or Mark Reynolds, then fine, wait to get that guy later. But a player is the best at his position, and if you have to drat him in a higher round, why not still go after the best player?

You can obviously win your league by overpaying for saves and lose it by waiting to draft saves. If you think you can wait five more rounds to get a top tier closer, be my guest. If that approach works for you, far be it from me to step on your shoes. But it shouldn't be this hard and fast rule that everyone should apply. And frankly, I like the stability of "wasting" my pick on a top tiered guy.