2012 Fantasy Baseball: Relief Pitcher Rankings

Opening Day is next week and Athlon Sports has all the fantasy baseball rankings you need to get ready for the upcoming season.

Athlon Sports has combined nine fantasy baseball big boards from around the web to compile an updated consensus Top 200 as well as positional breakdowns.

No position has been impacted by injuries more during spring training than relief pitching, or more specifically, closers.

Ryan Madson (No. 10 RP, No. 122 overall) and Joakim Soria (No. 17 RP, No. 157 overall) are both out for the season after tearing ligaments in their pitching elbows that will require Tommy John surgery to repair. Their loss is a blow for the Reds and Royals, their respective teams, but also presents an opportunity for someone else.

To this point, Reds manager Dusty Baker has said he's leaning towards going with a closer by committee. Sean Marshall figures to get the first shot at the save opportunities for the Reds, but others to watch include Bill Bray, Aroldis Chapman and Nick Masset. To add even more uncertainty to the Reds' bullpen situation, both Bray and Masset are dealing with injuries and the team has already said that Masset will start the season on the DL.

With the Royals, Jonathan Broxton, who saved 36 games for the Dodgers in 2009, could be first in line to replace Soria, but he's not only candidate. Greg Holland and Aaron Crow are two young pitchers who bear watching and could seize the closer's job and not relinquish it.

Drew Storen (No. 5 RP, No. 91 overall), who saved 43 games for the Nationals last season, is another closer dealing with elbow issues. In Storen's case, his does not seem to be serious, but he will start the season on the DL. The Nationals hope to have him back by the middle of April.

While Storen is out, the Nationals appear to be leaning towards handing closing duties to Brad Lidge. Lidge was one of the top closers in the game from 2004-10 when he was with the Astros and Phillies, averaging more than 31 saves a season during that time. Sean Burnett, Tyler Clippard and Henry Rodriguez also could get a chance to close, especially should Lidge struggle finishing games.

Be sure to consult Athlon Sports' MLB Fantasy Closer Grid throughout the season to keep track of every team's bullpen situation.

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Rank – Position ranking
OVR – Overall ranking on The Big Board
LR — Last Ranked, where player was ranked on The Big Board that was published on Feb. 20, 2012
NR — Not Ranked, means player did not appear on The Big Board that was published on Feb. 20, 2012

AS – Athlon Sports (updated 3/19/12)
CBS – CBSSportsline.com (as of 3/16/12)
ESPN – (updated 3/13/12)
FOX – FOXSports.com (updated 3/7/12)
MLB – MLB.com (as of 3/15/12)
RC – RotoChamp.com (updated 3/18/12)
RS – RotoSummit.com (updated 2/27/12)
USA — USAToday.com (updated 2/13/12)
Y! – Yahoo! Sports (updated 2/24/12)*

*Yahoo! ranked only 120 players on their list, while Athlon's Big Board contains 200. The aggregated scores of the other eight big boards were used to extrapolate Yahoo!’s rankings to 200 players.

Athlon Sports Fantasy Rankings: Big Board | C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP

— By Mark Ross, updated on March 30, 2012

Other Fantasy Baseball Content:

2012 Fantasy Baseball: First Base Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Second Base Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Shortstop Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Third Base Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Outfield Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Catcher Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Starting Pitcher Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Relief Pitcher Rankings
2012 MLB Fantasy Closer Grid
2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers and Busts: Infield
2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers and Busts: Outfield
2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers and Busts: Starting Pitching
2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers and Busts: Closers
Fantasy Baseball Studs to Avoid in 2012
2012 Fantasy Baseball Deep Sleepers

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