If you’re a regular reader of RotoBaller (and how could someone as smart, funny, and handsome as you not be?), you’ve doubtless already checked out our rankings assistant tool. We rolled our final preseason update last week.

With draft season ramping up now, it seems like a good time to check our expert opinions against the wisdom of the crowds. Over the last two weeks, we’ve highlighted players with notable discrepancies between their ADP and how the staff here at RotoBaller views their 2016 value. We close out the series today with a look at undervalued relievers.

All ADP data is courtesy of FantasyPros. Quoted figures are the players’ ranking at their position and not their overall ADP.

Relief Pitchers We Prefer

Ken Giles
ADP: 9th | RotoBaller (RB) Rank: 6th | My Rank: 5th

A comparison:

Wade Davis is awesome. He’s in the conversation for best reliever in the game, and now that he’s the closer for the Royals, his ADP is 66.4, virtually the same as Craig Kimbrel and Kenley Jansen. Giles, who has been basically just as good in the areas most directly under a pitcher’s control, is being drafted closer to pick 100.

Glen Perkins
ADP: 20th | RB Rank: 12th | My Rank: 13th

Only five players have tallied more saves than Perkins in the last three seasons, and the other guys in the Twins’ bullpen haven’t really ever threatened his grip on the ninth. At a position notorious for its volatile nature, that level of reliability carries significant value. So why are owners so low on Perkins this season? Well, his strikeout rate has declined in each of the last two years, while his WHIP and homer rate have increased. He also suffers by comparison from the recent sharp rise in the number of elite late-game relievers - Perkins’ lack of a flashy ERA or eye-popping strikeout totals makes him, for lack of a better term, boring. But it’s tough to find this kind of consistency outside of the elite (and much more expensive) tier.

David Hernandez
ADP: 49th | RB Rank: 32nd | My Rank: 31st

The Phillies’ bullpen is not very good. Hernandez was good once, and while he hasn’t been terribly successful in recent years, there are some mildly encouraging signs that he’s still capable of pitching reasonably well. If this sounds like a tepid endorsement….well, it is. But Hernandez is likely to be the closer in Philadelphia, and simply holding the job makes him fantasy relevant. He’s struggled with the long ball the last couple of years, and while that doesn’t figure to get much easier in Citizens Bank Park, his strikeout and walk rates remain playable in any format.

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