Top Ten Relief Pitchers

Relievers can often be really good one year and bad the next, so they are a hard position to rate. I'm going to seperate it into two categories; setup relievers and closers. Often times, a reliever in the 7th or 8th inning gets the tough outs instead of the closer, so they are important as well. Not that the last 3 outs are irrelevant, but setup guys come in games with runners on and closers often come in to start the last inning. It takes a different personality to excel in a late inning role, and there's been a few relievers in baseball history as crazy as Eastbound and Down's Kenny Powers. Below are my reliever rankings.

Setup Relievers

10) Luke Gregerson, Padres    Former Cardinal farmhand has 83 holds in 3 seasons
9) Joaquin Benoit, Tigers          Had a 1.34 ERA in 2010, 2.95 in 2011
8) Sergio Romo, Giants            Had a 1.50 ERA and a 0.71 WHIP last year
7) Sean Marshall, Reds            Tough lefty moves from the Cubs to Reds
6) Francisco Rodriguez, Brewers  Single season saves leader now a setup man
5) Eric O'Flaherty, Braves        Had a career year in 2011, gives Braves to tough lefty relievers
4) Tyler Clippard, Nationals     All Star had a 1.83 ERA and 104 Ks in 88 innings
3) David Robertson, Yankees   All Star had a 1.08 ERA and 100 Ks in 66.2 innings
2) Mike Adams, Rangers         Highest ERA in last 3 seasons was 1.76 in 2010
1) Jonny Venters, Braves         2nd straight year with sub-2.00 ERA and more than 90 Ks

Closers

10) Joel Hanrahan, Pirates    1.83 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, and 40 saves last year
9) JJ Putz, DBacks               2.71 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and 45 saves last year
8) Ryan Madson, Reds        Possesses one of the games best changeups
7) Heath Bell, Padres           New Marlin has had 3 straight 40 save seasons
6) Brian Wilson, Giants       The Beard wasn't as feared last year, his ERA was up 1.30 from 2010
5) Jonathon Papelbon, Phillies  New Phillie has 219 career saves
4) John Axford, Brewers      1.95 with 86 Ks and 46 saves in 2011
3) Craig Kimbrel, Braves     NL rookie of the Year led NL with 46 saves
2) Jose Valverde, Tigers      49 for 49 in save opportunities in 2011
1) Mariano Rivera, Yankees  Alltime save leader with 603 and for the postseason with 42