League going from saves to saves+holds

[YourPalChrisMal]

I'm in a 12-team AL-only keeper league. We're changing the saves category to saves+holds which will be 1 of the categories in a 5x5.

Sooooooooooo...What tips do people have? Essentially, this seems to make all relievers almost worthless.

As my luck would have it (I guess), I have Kevin Jepsen $2, Mark Lowe $1 and Justin Wilson $1. I picked Lowe and Wilson up as late season FAAB bids with this saves+holds thing in mind. If you look at the holds leaders, Jepsen and Wilson were near the top. Heck, Jepsen may have been close to the AL's most valuable reliever in saves+holds leagues.

My keeper list is rather sparse, so all 3 of those guys may wind up being keepers. Seems to me that there's not much else to do. Get a handful of guys for $1-2/each who are set-up men with a chance to close, and hope for the best? Doesn't seem like there's much point in investing a lot of $$$ in that one category out of 10 when it seems like holds should be pretty easy to obtain via FAAB if necessary.

Suggestions?

[The Dane]

In my experience (and it's been a while, granted), the price of solid closers drops markedly, and the top-tier MRs rise to nearly meet them. Low-end closers drop WAY off and run-of-the-mill MRs see a slight price elevation. Mid-tier MRs with lots of appearances have more value too, because they can back into holds often enough to make it work rostering them, especially if they are on a team with a good bullpen.

It does vastly increase the size of the useful pool of pitchers, so you'll take fewer chances on low-rung starters because you need Ks and a rare win badly. It's often way better to grab a useful reliever and get his often-better Ks and occasional Hold/Vulture Win.

Others likely can add a lot more than I can.

[Davros]

It has also been several years since I played in a SV+Holds league. I actually liked that category as it allowed me to completely ignore the really poor closers with high ERAs and high WHIPs that tend to wreck your ratios. It also allowed me to not be a slave to fickle managers who change their closer usage patterns on whims.

For me, it really made the relievers with high K/9 rates, low WHIP, and high usage (60+ IP) the only ones worth rostering, especially if you have an innings cap. Even if pitchers like that do not start the year with late inning roles, they tend to gain them during the season, so you can mostly ignore their initial expectations for saves and holds. If you can stock up on several relievers as I describe, it can also allow you to take a risk on using some lower K/9 starting pitchers with good ERAs and WHIPs that you would normally avoid in a typical 5x5 league.

Jepsen and Wilson look like ideal guys to keep. Lowe's only issue has been racking up enough IP over a season, though 45-55 IP is not terrible.

And thankfully, there only appears to be one used rule for calculating holds now. That used to make this stat a bit confusing to monitor. The old SportsTicker definition allowed guys who did not record an out to get a hold, which was a bit ridiculous IMHO.

[GwynnInTheHall]

I've played in a saves+holds league for years now and I always target high K/9 guys who are the 7/8/9 inning guys with no concern which inning they pitch as holds are as valuable as saves now so it matters not who you get them from, so IMHO, go for the high K guys regardless of closer status, but only ones who come in after the 6th inning.

[YourPalChrisMal]

I've played in a saves+holds league for years now and I always target high K/9 guys who are the 7/8/9 inning guys with no concern which inning they pitch as holds are as valuable as saves now so it matters not who you get them from, so IMHO, go for the high K guys regardless of closer status, but only ones who come in after the 6th inning.

I'm going to have to crunch some numbers to figure this out. But here's an example. I have Keone Kela for $6. Assuming he goes into the season as the set-up man for Tolleson, what's his value in a 5x5 league, AL-only, 12 teams, 30% inflation? Is he worth $6 because he's going to get holds for sure, and is probably 1st in line after Tolleson? Seems like it's almost not worth spending more than $6 on any reliever in this format, no?

Perhaps a better question, with 10 pitching slots, what's a good ratio to be sure I'm going to get enough wins and K's? 6 starters:4 relievers?

[GwynnInTheHall]

I'm going to have to crunch some numbers to figure this out. But here's an example. I have Keone Kela for $6. Assuming he goes into the season as the set-up man for Tolleson, what's his value in a 5x5 league, AL-only, 12 teams, 30% inflation? Is he worth $6 because he's going to get holds for sure, and is probably 1st in line after Tolleson? Seems like it's almost not worth spending more than $6 on any reliever in this format, no?

Perhaps a better question, with 10 pitching slots, what's a good ratio to be sure I'm going to get enough wins and K's? 6 starters:4 relievers?

Top end 7th and 8th inning guys will also vulture some wins for you and yes this diminishes all relievers price as you now have 2.5 more arms to fill that category than before.