Thursday, September 03, 2009

Rockies Closer

TJ wants to know:
How about Franklin Morales and Rafael Betancourt, since Huston Street is out for a little while in COL?
TJ asked this question at 9:54 this morning...hours before Jim Tracy announced that Morales is going to be his guy in the short-term until Street's ready to go.

Tracy's reasoning is kind of stupid...
"Franklin wants to be out there, and that's part of it," Tracy said of Morales, who began the year as a starter. "Did you see his emotion out there? He's going to get the ball until we get Huston back."
...but that's what the save statistic does: turn otherwise rational and intelligent human beings into rah-rah factories.

All kidding and editorializing aside, I have no reason not to believe Tracy. Some have pointed out that Morales is a lefty killer and that Betancourt might be a better option against righties, but while Betancourt has absolutely been murder on righties this year (514 OPS against), Morales hasn't exactly been a slouch (638). You could make this argument the other way, too: Betancourt's OPS against lefties (832) makes him a liability unless an all right-handed line-up is coming up against him in the 9th.

It seems like Morales is the guy you want to get in N.L.-only leagues in the hopes of snagging a handful of odd saves. In the N.L. league I track for FAAB, both Betancourt and Morales are free agents, so if I can make it to the computer on Monday morning, I'll at least try to post their FAAB prices.


1 comment:

nlfantasybb said...

Morales has a handful of relief appearances in the minors and one career save but they announce him as the closer over Betancourt? Very odd. I wonder if it has anything to do with Betancourt dealing with some hamstring/groin issues (can't recall exactly which one).