Keeping with the pitching theme for this week, I have put together a list of relievers that have solid strikeout rates and will actually help your teams overall ERA. I have been dealing with one of my teams getting killed in ERA and WHIP as of late, because I have been carrying some shaky pitchers as of late. I have also included their Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) along with their ERA and WHIP. By way of review, FIP represents what a pitcher’s ERA should be based upon factors that he can control (walks, strikeouts, HR, etc..), and is an attempt to eliminate the team fielding ability that may factor into a abnormally low, or high ERA.

Juan Cruz ARI - 12.15 K/9 - 40 IP - 2.93 ERA - 1.38 WHIP - 3.83 FIP
Tim Byrdak DET - 11.22 K/9 - 21.2 IP - 3.32 ERA - 1.38 WHIP - 3.43 FIP
Pat Neshek MIN - 11.02 K/9 - 49 IP - 2.02 ERA - 0.86 WHIP - 3.24 FIP
Joakim Soria KC - 10.35 K/9 - 44.1 IP - 2.44 ERA - 1.04 WHIP - 2.57 FIP
Rafael Perez CLE - 10.16 K/9 - 31 IP - 2.03 ERA - 0.90 WHIP - 3.20 FIP
Scott Downs TOR - 10.15 K/9 - 39 IP - 2.31 ERA - 1.33 WHIP - 3.64 FIP
Damaso Marte PIT - 10.09 K/9 - 30.1 IP - 1.48 ERA - 0.99 WHIP - 2.24 FIP
Troy Percival STL - 9.95 K/9 - 12.2 IP - 3.55 ERA - 1.18 WHIP - 2.96 FIP
Zack Greinke KC - 9.14 K/9 - 78 IP - 4.38 ERA - 1.38 WHIP - 2.97 FIP
Heath Bell SD - 9.10 K/9 - 57.1 IP - 2.04 ERA - 0.98 WHIP - 2.24 FIP
Mike Wuertz CHC - 9.06 K/9 - 46.2 IP - 3.66 ERA - 1.37 WHIP - 3.86 FIP
George Sherrill - 8.90 K/9 - 31.1 IP - 1.44 ERA - 0.73 WHIP - 2.63 FIP
Manny Delcarmen BOS - 8.84 K/9 - 19.1 IP - 1.40 ERA - 0.88 WHIP - 2.48 FIP
Justin MIller FLA - 8.65 K/9 - 34.1 IP - 2.10 ERA - 1.05 WHIP - 3.00 FIP
Santiago Casilla OAK - 8.46 K/9 - 27.2 IP - 1.30 ERA - 0.94 WHIP - 2.55 FIP

These players have the best strikeout rates, and that is probably their largest value. Some of these pitchers are more specialists and so they won’t rack up the innings, but I highly recommend Pat Neshek, Zack Greinke, Troy Percival, and Manny Delcarman over closers like Antonio Alfonseca, and David Weathers. These pitchers are also good to have on your team if you have Todd Jones and Joe Borowski, because they may be able to lessen the impact of the ups and downs of them.

Remember, These are not pitchers that will change your team over night, but should help along the process in deep leagues.