When I graduated high school, I went to Regis University in Denver, CO, for one year, because I thought I wanted to play baseball.

After two weeks I not only knew that I did not want to play baseball, but that the title of “University” was a misnomer for what Regis really is: 13th grade. Don’t get me wrong, it may have been an ideal situation for some, but for me the lack of beautiful platinum blondes and recreational indulgences spelled out URGENT.

My relocation to the University of Colorado at Boulder met all of the requisite needs that I had for an institute of higher learning, but my transition from Regis to CU enforces an important idea: context.

If you took a girl of average appearance from the University of Colorado, G.O.A.P. mind you, and placed her next to the most attractive girl at Regis, most would mistake the girl from Regis for a soccer mom that has given birth to three children and whose last priority, right below procurement of coupons for oven degreaser, is her appearance.

The girl from the CU did not change at all to have her value increased. She was just placed into a different context. The same can be true for elite relievers that are not closers in Fantasy Baseball. Unless relievers are placed in a certain context—used as the pitcher that throws the last inning of each game—they maintain significantly less value.

Over the long run, a reliever will pitch the same whether or not it’s the seventh inning or the ninth. Like I’ve said before, I assume that because you’ve found this article on some far off corner of the Internet, and as a result have a more developed knowledge of baseball than people that consume baseball through ESPN, you’ll know the previous statement to be true. And because this statement is true, I thought we would look at the best non-closing relievers, as projected by the 2014 Steamer forecasts.

The deeper the league, the more important these pitchers become. Because as the season goes on, closers will lose their jobs, get injured, or a combination of the two, and be replaced by the players on this list.

There are some starters sprinkled in this list because Steamer, the projection system that I used to forecast fantasy value, doesn’t think they will pitch more innings than the maximum innings threshold it set, and there are pitchers—Jason Motte and Kyuji Fujikawa—who were injured the majority of last year that Steamer does not account for. I also just focused on runs allowed per nine and total strikeouts. Relievers that play for teams that have a cluster of relievers that are till in a situation to vie for the closer role have been left in the chart: Rangers, White Sox, Astros.

Best Non-Closing Relievers

RK Player zSCR 1 Jake McGee 1.73 2 Joaquin Benoit 1.49 3 Jason Motte 1.43 4 Mark Melancon 1.37 5 Kelvin Herrera 1.20 6 Jesse Crain 1.06 7 Danny Farquhar 1.02 8 Sergio Santos 0.87 9 Cody Allen 0.87 10 Jordan Walden 0.83 11 Kevin Siegrist 0.83 12 Nate Jones 0.83 13 Tyler Clippard 0.76 14 Bruce Rondon 0.74 15 Kyuji Fujikawa 0.72 16 J.J. Putz 0.72 17 Burch Smith 0.71 18 Sean Doolittle 0.68 19 Junichi Tazawa 0.68 20 Will Smith 0.62 21 Luke Hochevar 0.60 22 Neal Cotts 0.59 23 J.J. Hoover 0.59 24 Shawn Kelley 0.57 25 Jonny Venters 0.53 26 Rex Brothers 0.52 27 Al Alburquerque 0.50 28 Brian Wilson 0.46 29 Alex Torres 0.46 30 Aaron Crow 0.44 31 Andrew Miller 0.44 32 Brad Lincoln 0.42 33 Antonio Bastardo 0.42 34 Oliver Perez 0.40 35 Carlos Martinez 0.38 36 Mike Dunn 0.38 37 Manny Parra 0.36 38 Francisco Rodriguez 0.33 39 Carter Capps 0.29 40 Paco Rodriguez 0.29 41 Ryan Cook 0.25 42 Steve Delabar 0.25 43 Joel Peralta 0.23 44 Drew Storen 0.21 45 Darren O'Day 0.17 46 Craig Stammen 0.15 47 Boone Logan 0.14 48 Heath Bell 0.10 49 Jeurys Familia 0.10 50 Jamey Wright 0.08 51 David Hernandez 0.08 52 Pedro Strop 0.06 53 Charlie Furbush 0.06 54 Christian Garcia 0.06 55 Brad Ziegler 0.05 56 Joakim Soria 0.03 57 Justin Wilson 0.01 58 Nick Vincent -0.01 59 Brett Cecil -0.01 60 Tony Watson -0.05 61 Sean Marshall -0.07 62 Darren Oliver -0.07 63 Gonzalez Germen -0.07 64 Luis Avilan -0.07 65 Jared Burton -0.07 66 A.J. Ramos -0.08 67 Josh Fields -0.08 68 Josh Beckett -0.08 69 Jenrry Mejia -0.09 70 J.P. Howell -0.09 71 David Carpenter -0.09 72 Neftali Feliz -0.10 73 Blake Parker -0.12 74 Tim Collins -0.14 75 Michael Kohn -0.14 76 Javier Lopez -0.15 77 Brandon Kintzler -0.15 78 Joe Smith -0.16 79 Luke Gregerson -0.16 80 Carlos Villanueva -0.17 81 Yoervis Medina -0.18 82 Vinnie Pestano -0.18 83 Tommy Milone -0.19 84 Kevin Jepsen -0.20 85 Rafael Betancourt -0.20 86 Seth Maness -0.21 87 Heath Hembree -0.22 88 Sam LeCure -0.22 89 Carlos Marmol -0.23 90 Tim Stauffer -0.24 91 Brandon Workman -0.24 92 Casey Fien -0.24 93 Jonathan Broxton -0.24 94 Tanner Scheppers -0.24 95 Roberto Hernandez -0.25 96 Drew Pomeranz -0.26 97 Brian Matusz -0.26 98 Vic Black -0.27 99 Bryan Shaw -0.29 100 Joe Thatcher -0.29 101 Robbie Ross -0.31 102 Yusmeiro Petit -0.32 103 Tyler Lyons -0.32 104 Mike Adams -0.33 105 Matt Thornton -0.33 106 Joel Hanrahan -0.33 107 Randy Choate -0.35 108 Jesse Chavez -0.35 109 Arodys Vizcaino -0.35 110 Jeremy Affeldt -0.35 111 Louis Coleman -0.35 112 Matt Belisle -0.37 113 Brian Duensing -0.37 114 Chris Perez -0.37 115 Kevin Gausman -0.41 116 Brandon Gomes -0.41 117 Adam Ottavino -0.42 118 Tom Wilhelmsen -0.42 119 Josh Collmenter -0.43 120 Justin De Fratus -0.44 121 Jake Diekman -0.44 122 Josh Lueke -0.48 123 Dale Thayer -0.48 124 Joba Chamberlain -0.48 125 Juan Oviedo -0.50 126 Chris Withrow -0.50 127 Santiago Casilla -0.50 128 Matt Lindstrom -0.50 129 Franklin Morales -0.52 130 Neil Wagner -0.54 131 Jean Machi -0.56 132 Aaron Loup -0.56 133 James Russell -0.57 134 Tom Gorzelanny -0.58 135 Dane de la Rosa -0.59 136 Stephen Pryor -0.59 137 Josh Edgin -0.59

Jake Mcgee: Tampa Bay Rays

Jake McGee tops the list, and although he showed signs of decline at the start of last year, there may be somewhat of an explanation for the ineffectiveness. McGee worked on cutter in spring training last year, and when the 2013 season started he put the cutter away, and said that he didn’t have as good of command with his fastball because of the time he spent with the cutter in spring training. I tried to find a source for this, but was only able to find a dialogue about it in the most recent episode of the Sleeper and the Bust.

This isn’t to say that Grant Balfour, the incumbent Rays closer, will lose his job in 2014. It’s to say that if Balfour happens to get hurt or become ineffective, McGee could become a top Fantasy option.

Joaquin Benoit: San Diego Padres

I planned to associate a metaphor between Lindsay Lohan’s frequently, regular tendency to fall off the wagon, and Huston Street’s similar pattern of misfortune when it comes to injures, but that would be low hanging fruit. So instead, we can talk about what we know. 1.) Huston Street will—we can’t say with absolute certainty, but the greatest predictor of future injuries are past injuries, which he has had a lot of—land on the DL in 2014. 2.) Joaquin Benoit is good reliever. Great combination.

Devin Jordan is obsessed with statistical analysis, non-fiction literature, and electronic music. If you enjoyed reading him, follow him on Twitter @devinjjordan.