The Diamondbacks have acquired pitcher Jon Rauch in an attempt to shore up their shaky bullpen.  Arizona had seen their relief corps as a strength earlier in the season, but the performances of Brandon Lyon, Chad Qualls, and Toney Pena have dropped off in recent weeks and Juan Cruz and Doug Slaten remain on the disabled list.

Rauch has been solid this season as the closer for the Nationals for most of the season.  At 6-foot-11 he is the tallest pitcher in major league history besting his new teammate Randy Johnson by 1 inch.  He is 4-2 this year with 17 saves and a 2.98 ERA.  It is not immediately clear if he will be setting up or closing, but this certainly muddles the situation in Arizona.  Yesterday manager Doug Melvin said Lyon still held the closer role despite Qualls finishing the game against the Cubs.  Rauch certainly has shown the aptitude to close this year, and has frankly been more consistent and better than Lyon.

Should Arizona trust this man in the 9th inning?

Washington continues to be a mess, but moving Rauch was the right thing to do.  Why they didn’t do the same thing last year by moving former closer Chad Cordero remains a mystery.  Now Cordero is injured and has lost all value, but enough about the mismanagement of the Nationals.  More important now in fantasy is who gets the saves now that Rauch has been shipped out West. 

The frontrunner at this point has to be former Dodgers prospect Joel Hanrahan.  The hard-throwing righty piqued my interest earlier in the season because of his solid strikeout numbers but the rest of the peripheral performance numbers weren’t there.  His K/9 rate of 9.86 is fantastic, and seeing as how he averages 95 mph on his fastball it’s no surprise.  The red flag here is the 4.85 BB/9 showing a lack of control.  Hanrahan also has a history of arm problems that dropped him from super-prospect status in L.A. to the middle reliever he is today.  If he continues to show he can stay healthy, Hanrahan could carve out a nice career for himself as a power reliever, and be a solid closer in the future.  This season however his control problems and terrible Washington team limits his upside.  At best I would say he ends the year with maximum 10 saves, and by no means is he a lock to stay in the role.

Hanrahan has rediscovered his velocity, and may now get a shot to close games in Washington.