A relatively quiet Sunday in the world of bullpens…

• Phillies heading into the ninth with a three-run lead and out trots… Antonio Bastardo? Bastardo ended up nailing down the save (a little present for his holds owners!) although he wasn’t terribly sharp, giving up an earned run amid four baserunners. Bastardo’s 2.25 ERA certainly is nice and tidy, but with a low BABIP (.269) and a high strand rate (88.2% LOB%), his xFIP is a less delicious 4.95. His career xFIP is 3.77, so he’s probably not this bad, but if I had to own a non-Jonathan Papelbon reliever in Philadelphia, it would be Mike Adams. Oh, by the way, don’t fear Papelbon owners, he is merely battling some sort of illness. Day-to-day.

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• The Indians still haven’t had a save situation since Chris Perez went down, but Vinnie Pestano came on in the ninth of a four-run game today. He promptly gave up a round-tripper to Xavier Paul, but settled down to finish off the victory. I still don’t like his peripherals, but you have to own “the guy.” Cody Allen tossed a scoreless inning with a couple strikeouts. He probably got plucked up the last couple days following the Perez news, but even if he’s not closing, he’s a nice source of K’s and ERA for your squad.

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If you are like me, you spend 10 or so minutes every morning going over your rosters, making moves, and setting lineups before you head in to work for the day (or… whatever you do during the day). While I also come home and typically glue myself to MLB.tv, there are days when those early morning roster moves have to hold for that night’s games. So I got a bit above and beyond using that period for merely making sure I have a lineup in the event of a simultaneous power and cell phone network failure.

In a daily league like Draftstreet, understanding which players will play on any given day is a necessity. In roto, if a guy gets benched for platoon splits, oh well, you still have that game to use under the cap later in the season. However, in a daily salary cap league and you aren’t near a computer and player X isn’t taking the field for his 9:05 start? Big fat zero. Fangraphs posts lineups on our leaderboard as soon as they are posted, so you have ways to tease out guys riding the pine hours before the game. However, you also should be keeping an eye to the sky. Well, not literally, but always, always, always check the weather.

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• I feel like I write “uh oh” a lot. Uh oh. Chris Perez left Sunday’s game with a sore shoulder. Boston rallied from three runs down to win but it’s tough to tease out how much of that was the shoulder and how much was Perez just being bad. Either way, shoulder injuries, especially those that require coming of a game mid-inning are nothing to scoff at. Regardless of what the Indians said after the game, this seems likely to be longer than a day-to-day thing, and could possibly land Perez on the disabled list.

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• Uh oh. Jim Henderson went down with a left leg injury trying to finish off a one-run game tonight in Milwaukee. It didn’t look good; his plant leg essentially buckled on a pitch to Russell Martin. He tried one warmup pitch but grabbed at back of the leg again before being led off the field. Who came in for the last out of the game? None other than Francisco Rodriguez, who induced a Neil Walker groundout to pick up career save number 295. After the game, Henderson was diagnosed with a hamstring injury. Ouch.

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• Uh oh. Fernando Rodney is at it again. The crooked-lidded closer blew his fourth save of the season this afternoon, giving up a solo shot to Jose Bautista. While the home run was the real punch, the bigger concern for Rodney’s owners is that manager Joe Maddon initially left him in, but then yanked him after he walked yet another batter on the season. If you look at Rodney’s BB% the last five seasons, they read 16%, 12%, 11%, 19%, 5%, 20%. Spot the outlier?

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• Well, the closer merry-go-round in Los Angeles seems to be getting more interesting by the day. Less than 24 hours removed from Kenley Jansen’s minor meltdown while trying to hold a close lead, he struggled in the eighth again. This time, Brandon League was called upon to try and put out the fire while wrapping up a multi-inning save. He did neither, allowing both inherited runners to score and allowing two of his own to cross the plate. LA Time beat writer Dylan Hernandez insinuated after that game that, had League snuck out of that jam, Matt Guerrier would have pitched the ninth, although it’s unlikely that was the plan before League entered.

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• Go see if Kenley Jansen is still on your wire (perhaps you’re league is full of lackadaisical old chaps who had a slow-pitch softball game this evening). Right now. Stop reading and do it. I’ll wait. OK, back? Alright, well even after Jansen picked up a save last night (during a game where Brandon League didn’t even warm), Don Mattingly is still holding his cards close to the vest, saying he won’t name Jansen his closer. Of course, he was also quoted as saying “in that game, I had to go with the guy who’s throwing the ball best; as much as anything he’s been throwing the ball better than anybody.” That doesn’t seem like a guy who just pitched one of the league’s top relievers on a whim. Don’t drop League, but it’s hard not to salivate at the possible (dare I say, likely?) changing of the guard in Dodgertown. If Jansen is indeed the new ninth inning man, he and his 36% K% immediately become a top-5 option for the rest of the season.

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While a trendy sleeper pick in 2013, Jean Segura still slipped well into the double-digit rounds on draft day. Suddenly the top fantasy shortstop through six weeks, owners who passed are annoyed and owners who took the plunge in dynasty formats are already readying the 15-year franchise tender. Apparently the Brewers want to keep him around for a while, too, as they have reportedly offered the young shortstop a multi-year deal even though he isn’t arbitration eligible until 2016. What does this start mean for you, though?

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• Jose Valverde picked an unfortunate time to allow his first base hit of 2013 as he took his first blown save of the season against the Indians. Even after today, his ERA sits at a respectable 1.50, but his strikeout and walk numbers appear to be no different than last year. In 2012 his SwStr% absolutely fell off a cliff and it’s even lower this year. His splitter, once his out pitch and an offering he used more than half of time, is now only accounting for 12% of his deliveries. If his fastball velocity doesn’t improve from his 92.6 mph figure, it will represent the fifth straight year in decline. If it sounds like I am down on Valverde, I am, but the good news for his fantasy owners is that Papa Grande has job security, at least until he has a few more days like today. Sell the “closer” tag if you can, but otherwise know that the saves you get might be coming at the expense of your other ratios. I find it highly unlikely he survives the season as closer.

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