It happens every year in fantasy baseball. We draft a top-tier closer and either that closer gets hurt like Joakim Soria in 2009 or falls flat on their face like Jonathan Broxton in 2010.

When this happens, we usually scramble to try to find a replacement and often times, that replacement is the setup man on that closer’s team. However, if you play in a league with weekly waiver wire pickups, then nine other owners are going to pick up that setup guy in order to block you from getting him.

In order to prevent this very scenario from happening, I have compiled a list of the top setup men in the game. These are the guys you want to grab if you draft the closer on that team and have room on your roster. Think of these guys as the backup running backs in your draft.

Here are the top-12 fantasy setup men heading into the 2011 season…

One note on this list, I didn’t include the Chicago White Sox tandem of Matt Thornton and Chris Sale because there are a lot of things still up in the air in regards to their roles in 2011. Sale might be starting or closing, so we will wait to see what happens with him before we add him to this list.

If Sale closes and Thornton is the setup man, then Thornton will be very high on this list.

We’ll update this list as spring training and the season progresses.

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By The Baseball Index