Colorado Closer Battle - Part 1

No one knows who will be the closer in Colorado this year, now that the Shawn Chacon Experiment has mercifully been brought to a close. Obviously, you aren't going to want to draft the Rocks closer for your fantasy team under any circumstances - but because you can get pretty desperate for that 2nd closer in a deep NL-only league, we'll keep tabs on the situation.

At the official Rockies site, Thomas Harding has a story discussing the current "frontrunner", the young Chin Hui-Tsao. Tsao was signed out of Taiwan as an 18-year old, was going under the knife for TJ surgery by the time he was 20, and was back in the Show by age 22. Now, at the ripe old age of 24, he's being given every opportunity to lock down the closer role, despite pitching fewer than 10 innings in the majors in 2004.

So far, so good.

Through Thursday's spring games, Tsao was sporting a 1.80 ERA, with only one earned run allowed on 4 hits (and three walks) over 5 innings. He's also putting up some K's - 5 so far. He's been thrown directly into the fire, too - Harding notes that Tsao has been appearing early in each of his 5 appearances, in order to see as many major league hitters as possible.

While the Colorado closer situation is still the most "wide open" in the majors, If Tsao keeps this up, he could make manager Clint Hurdle's decision pretty easy. For what it's worth, Tsao's main competition for the closer role, Brian Fuentes and Eddie Gaillard, have struggled in the early going, with respective ERAs of 12.00 and 18.90 over about 3 innings each.

If it isn't Tsao, our money is on Brian Fuentes. After a fantastic 27-year old year in 2003, Fuentes took a step back in 2004:

Year W-L-S-IP---H--R--ER-BB-SO-ERA--ERA+
2003 3 3 4 75.3 64 24 23 34 82 2.75 173
2004 2 4 0 44.7 46 30 28 19 48 5.64 89

Fuentes' great 2003 gives him a bit more of a track record than Tsao, making him a safer pick. And even though he got knocked around last season, he still managed to strike out more than one batter per inning. Clint Hurdle certainly seemed impressed with Fuentes' last time out, when he pitched a perfect 9th vs. Arizona and recorded one strikeout:

"The ball just jumped out of his his hand... his off-speed stuff was just as good.That's the best he's looked all spring... He hasn't struggled dramatically by any means. His last outing was solid. This one jumped out at you a little bit."

Obviously, we're dealing with small sample sizes and spring statistics. However, based upon what we've read, it looks like Fuentes and Tsao are neck-and-neck for the closer role, with Hurdle potentially leaning toward Fuentes. We'll keep you posted.