The most-added relief pitcher in ESPN fantasy baseball standard leagues saved nary a win over the past three seasons, and appeared in only 19 major league games in that span. Chicago Cubs RHP David Robertson has that experience factor and there was no obvious closer, so it was reasonable to expect he could land some saves in his new home. He did, on Opening Day at Wrigley Field, working around a one-out Willy Adames single to whiff Christian Yelich and induce an Andrew McCutchen groundout. Rowan Wick and Mychal Givens pitched the eighth inning.
That was Chicago's lone save chance of the series against the Milwaukee Brewers and just because Robertson got it hardly means he gets the next one. Givens is younger, throws harder and saved eight games a season ago. Robertson, saver of 138 career games with the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox -- he also pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays, but saved no games for them -- tossed a scoreless eighth inning in a tie game on Sunday. Robertson's pitch mix was nearly even between his cutter and curveball, and from what I saw he commanded each. Why not 20-plus saves? He just needs health and opportunity.
Since I generally ignored the top relief pitchers in my leagues and figured I would play the waiver wire to find saves, I have been paying rather close attention to the unclear closer situations like the Cubs. For example, when Cincinnati Reds manager David Bell chose RHP Tony Santillan to close the Opening Day win at Atlanta, I acted in a few leagues. A few days later, of course, Santillan entered in the seventh inning and RHP Art Warren handled the ninth inning. We anxiously await the next save chance. Same goes for the Cubs, really.