The Kansas City Royals finally made a move with struggling closer Joakim Soria by removing him from the ninth inning role and replacing him with Aaron Crow. Soria blew his fifth save of the season on Monday against the Los Angeles Angels, giving him three blown saves in the last seven days. With his lack of strikeouts as well as his lack of command, it seems like there has to be an injury lurking for such a drastic drop off in performance. Crow has a 1.33 ERA on the season with a 1.04 WHIP and has struck out 26 in 27 innings.
Jon Rauch and Octavio Dotel should be in line for some save chances this week for the Toronto Blue Jays after Frank Francisco blew two save chances last week, allowing three runs in 1 1/3 innings. Francisco has a 6.59 ERA on the season with a 1.61 WHIP. Rauch picked up a save last Friday against the Chicago White Sox and will likely get the first shot at a save chance this week.
Kevin Gregg looks to be living on borrowed time in Baltimore with a 1.77 WHIP thanks to 18 walks against 15 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings of work. He has walked six hitters in his last three innings with one strikeout and while he has not blown a save since May 16th, it is going to be hard to prevent that from happening in the future with the current state of his control. I would be looking to grab Koji Uehara if he is still a free agent as he would be next in line for saves. Uehara has a 2.78 ERA with a 0.88 WHIP this season and 28 strikeouts in 22 2/3 innings.
If you anticipate needing another closer later in the season, you should start looking to reserve candidates now on your bench in you have the space. With the San Diego Padres playing sub .500 baseball, Heath Bell will likely be traded before the deadline which puts guys like Mike Adams (1.46 ERA, .73 WHIP), Ernesto Frieri (2.00 ERA, 1.22 WHIP) and Luke Gregerson (2.63 ERA, 1.33 WHIP) in the mix for saves.
The same holds true for the New York Mets where Francisco Rodriguez could be moved if the Mets try to shed payroll, though the options are a little more murky than with the Padres. Taylor Buchholz (3.12 ERA, 1.12 WHIP), Pedro Beato (2.38 ERA, 1.01 WHIP) or even veteran Jason Isringhausen (3.12 ERA, 1.15 WHIP) could see save opportunities if a deal goes down.
Week 9 Closer Stats – American League Saves:
Jordan Walden – 4
Brandon League – 3
Week 9 Closer Stats – National League Saves:
J.J. Putz – 4
Heath Bell – 3
Craig Kimbrel – 3


