Let’s play a quick game of name those numbers. Who has produced these incredible statistics?

151.1 IP / 9 W / 2.28 ERA / 195 K / 1.13 WHIP

Jake Peavy? Johan Santana? Many of you might see the line and figure it must have been a line from Peavy, Santana, or one of the other top-flight starting pitchers 151 innings through the season.

However, these stats were the combined 2007 season statistics of Carlos Marmol and Jonathan Broxton, two of the most dominant middle relievers in the game.

In terms of fantasy baseball, middle relievers are often forgotten when they can be a huge weapon as an added bonus to your pitching staff. They can be the secret key to lower WHIP and ERA, and many of these guys also pile up the strikeouts:

Carlos Marmol (CHC)
Let’s begin by talking about Marmol — the slender 6-foot-2 Dominican with electric stuff.

Serving as Kerry Wood’s setup man, Marmol has put together a dominant season so far. In 47 innings of work, Marmol has struck out 66 batters (more than starters Erik Bedard, Daniel Cabrera, and Daisuke Matsuzaka), boasts a WHIP of 0.87 and has an ERA at 3.06, which was hovering around 2 prior to a recent bad outing. Along with the great ratios, Marmol will pick up some saves when Wood doesn’t pitch or happens to get injured (which has occurred in the past), and he gets wins. Marmol won 5 games a season ago and has one win this year, to go along with 3 saves.

He should be owned in all formats, and his projected season line looks like this: 1 W/6 SV/132 K/3.06 ERA/0.87 WHIP.

Jonathan Broxton (LAD)
This 6’4” 290 pound power arm serves as the setup man for Takashi Saito and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Broxton, like Marmol, will pile up the strikeouts, have a great ERA, but is a little erratic at times, as evident by his 3.6 BB/9 career total, but he still has averaged 4 wins the past two seasons.

With the Ws, Broxton has struck out 97 and 99 batters the past two years, and posted consistent ERAs of 2.59 and 2.85 over the same time period. Since he pitches on the west coast, some of us may not have had the opportunity to see Broxton throw much, but the times I have seen him pitch he has been nasty. He could be available in your league, and you can expect his current ERA of 3.48 to decrease, since he has not allowed a run in June while striking out 12 in 10 innings of work.

Taylor Buchholz (COL)
After being a mediocre started for Houston and Colorado the past two seasons, Buchholz seems to be relishing his new role in the Colorado bullpen. He has 2 wins, a save, and in 38.2 innings of work, has posted an ERA of 1.40 and a WHIP of 0.75. Opponents are hitting just .152 off him this season. as well.

Another intriguing fact about Buchholz is if the Rockies decide to trade current closer Brian Fuentes, Buchholz is the leading candidate to step in, and probably deserves that role right now. With Manny Corpas being terrible and the Fuentes’ rumors, keep an eye on Buchholz. The only downfall on the reliever might be his 6.8 K/9 rate, which shows he doesn’t strike out a ton of batters.

Matt Thornton (CHW)
Thornton was a guy who never lived up to the hype. A former first-round draft pick out of Seattle, Thornton was known for his mid-to-high 90’s fastball that he couldn’t control. His career walk rate was 4.58 coming into the season, but that was before.

This season, Thornton has only walked 9 in 31.1 innings of work (a rate of 2.59) and boasts 4 wins, an 11.5 K/9 rate, a 2.30 ERA, and a 0.80 WHIP.

With 4 wins from his relief role, he already has as many wins as starters Matt Cain and Justin Verlander and one more win than Aaron Harang. Those three guys were all middle-round picks. However, if you happen to own Thornton or plan on picking him up, watch his walk total, because he could be a risky option based on his past control issues.

Best of the Rest
Here are some other valuable middle relievers:

Heath Bell (SD) — 5 W / 36 K / 2.22 ERA / 1.01 WHIP / 44.2 IP

JP Howell (TAM) – 6 W / 1 SV / 45 K / 3.02 ERA / 1.14 WHIP / 50.2 IP

Scott Linebrink (CHW) – 2 W / 28 K / 1.41 ERA / 0.81 WHIP / 32 IP

Jared Burton (CIN) – 4 W / 45 K / 2.34 ERA / 1.25 WHIP / 42.1 IP

Ideally, in the fantasy game, we want to have two or three solid closers, but why keep ratio-killing closers like Todd Jones or Joe Borowski, when you can possess a ratio savior like a stud middle-reliever? I am not saying drop all closers in favor of middle relievers, but examine the statistics. Also, consider the possibility of a solid middle reliever stepping into the closer’s role in the event of an injury or demotion.

Middle relievers can be a valuable asset and possibly even a low-cost secret weapon for anyone’s fantasy team, and teaming two of these guys together with two solid closers will tremendously help your fantasy team’s relief staff.

DRang

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