Just a few notes from the bullpens today with the left coast games still in progress…

Seung Hwan Oh took the bump in the top of the ninth-inning in a tie game against the Brewers. Oh fanned one, but surrendered a pair of hits including the game winning two-run dinger off the bat of Eric Thames. With Corey Knebel and Jacob Barnes having worked the previous two evenings and Carlos Torres seeing the eighth in tonight’s contest, the Brewers signaled for right-hander Oliver Drake to close out the Cardinals in the home half of the ninth. Drake came on to face the 8-9-1 hitters and promptly fanned the first two and finished off the Cards by inducing a fly ball out from Matt Carpenter to earn his first career save. With Neftali Feliz being designated for assignment, Carlos Torres will slot into the second chair and Drake is looking closely over his shoulder. With the loss, Oh is now 1-3 with 15 saves in 17 chances, a 3.48 ERA (4.03 FIP) and a 8.71 K/9. Both teams remain green.
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Happy Thursday, folks. Just a quick couple of notes out of the bullpens this evening.

Take a deep breath before this one. Bud Norris notched his fourth save of the week and is now 4-of-5 in save chances while manning the closer’s role for the Angels this season. In 12.2 total frames on the bump, Norris owns a 3:1 K:BB with a 2.84 ERA (2.03 FIP). The spike in cutter usage/effectiveness seems to be at the root of the 32-year-old’s rebirth as a relief arm. As it stands, we have the Angels situation as “yellow,” but as the days pass and saves continue to be converted, it’s hard to say that Cam Bedrosian is a lock to earn his ninth-inning role back when reinstated from the disabled list. If you’re scrambling for saves, you’re grabbing Norris (if you haven’t done so already) where you can as he’s available in more than 65% of Y! Leagues at the time of this writing.
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With both Neftali Feliz and Corey Knebel appearing in three of the past four days, Milwaukee turned to young flamethrower Jacob Barnes in the ninth-inning today for his first save opportunity. The right-hander failed to disappoint in his 10th trip to the bump this season, needing just 17 pitches (10 strikes) in a scoreless frame of work, striking out one and allowing one free pass en route to his first save of the season — second of his career — and a 7-5 victory over the Cardinals. This may not be the last we see of Barnes in save situations, as some in the scouting community believe he could be the Brewers’ long-term solution in that role. In just over 10 innings this season, Barnes owns a 0.00 ERA (1.76 FIP) and a 10.45 K/9.
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This evening’s edition of the Bullpen Report is much more of a routine fly-out than the previous week or so — lucky me. A combination of a short(er) slate and closers already in the green getting their work in are to thank as I write this. There have been some minor changes to the chart based on the work of the previous writers and the helpful notes from some of the commenters. Thanks folks.
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Welcome back to another season of the Bullpen Report here at RotoGraphs. As the second day of regular season games come to a close, we felt the need to catch up with you all, run the closer chart, provide some general thoughts about how we will proceed with the chart this season and provide a couple of tidbits of news and analysis from the handful of games already in the books.

With respect to the chart:
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Tyler Thornburg has pretty much been nails since taking over the ninth-inning role for the Brewers following the trade deadline deals of both Jeremy Jeffress and Will Smith. He’s accumulated the second-most WAR among qualified relievers over the last month (0.6 WAR) thanks in part to a pretty 0.00 ERA (2.71 FIP) and successfully converting five saves in six opportunities. Tonight, Thornburg needed four outs and 33 pitches (18 strikes – eight called, one swinging) to earn his 10th save of the season, but surrendered a hit and a couple of free passes along the way. All is green in Milwaukee for Thornburg.
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Short and sweet for this four game slate…

Unfortunately for the Atlanta Braves, Arodys Vizcaino is back on the shelf with shoulder inflammation. Fortunately for the Braves and fake baseballers alike, veteran Jim Johnson still has some gas in the tank. August was kind to the 33 year-old right-hander, who picked up saves in 7-of-8 chances with an 18:2 K:BB while allowing just one earned run. And he started off September on the right foot as well. The Braves entered the final frame of tonight’s tilt with the Padres up five runs, but summoned Johnson to the hill to end the Friars’ three-run rally and pick up his 14th save of the season. For a guy that’s green, induces worm burners over 57% of the time and owns a career best 16.4% K-BB%, Jim Johnson should be owned in a few more than 50% of Y! Formats at this point in the season — unless most of those folks at the bottom of the barrell have moved on….
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The Arizona Diamondbacks plan to give both Daniel Hudson and Randall Delgado a chance in late-inning/closing situations. Neither have been great to date — they share an identical 4.20 FIP and just about the same K-BB% (10.7% K-BB% for Hudson, 10% for Delgado) — but Hudson owns the superior ground ball rate at 42.3% and induces more soft contact (23.6% Soft%) than Delgado (17.6% Soft%). And while both of the aforementioned right-handers post better numbers against opposing right-handed hitters, Delgado has been slightly better in terms of FIP (3.10 to Hudson’s 3.79) while Hudson has been better against left-handed hitters (4.70 FIP to Delgado’s 6.03). Situation in Arizona is still red, but if I had to grab one of the duo it would be Hudson. Late note: Arizona has Jake Barrett on the hill in the top of the eighth, down a pair of runs to Atlanta.
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Yankees’ closer Dellin Betances worked around a double and a walk in the bottom half of the ninth to secure his third save on the year in a 4-2 win over the Red Sox. Despite the double and free pass, Betances struck out the side (Holt, Pedroia and Bogaerts) on 21 pitches (11 strikes, six called and three swinging) to seal the deal. Following tonight’s outing, the big right-hander is up to 55.1 innings on the hill this season with a 2.28 ERA (1.23 FIP) and a 16.10 K/9. The K/9 mark is the best in the business among qualified relief arms. Green, green, green.
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Newly acquired Jeremy Jeffress took the bump for the Rangers in the seventh inning today to face the Orioles’ 6-7-8 hitters, Pedro Alvarez, Matt Wieters and Jonathan Schoop. The former Brewers’ closer surrendered a pair of hits in his first appearance for Texas, but escaped unscathed to earn the hold. Matt Bush locked down the eighth inning for his 13th hold of the season before giving way to Sam Dyson. Like Jeffress, Dyson allowed a single to Pedro Alvarez, but induced a couple of worm burners and a fly out to notch his 23rd save of the season in 25 chances. Despite just a 6.39 K/9, Sam Dyson owns an elite ground ball rate (61.3% GB%) that ranks among the top ten of (qualified) relievers and top five among current qualified closers. The right-hander now owns a 2.34 ERA (3.54 FIP) in 49.1 innings pitched. Like Jon Daniels mentioned, Dyson will keep his ninth inning role despite the acquisition of Milwaukee’s closer (27-of-28 in save chances, 2.17 ERA and a 3.16 FIP). If you need the roster space you’re sending Jeffress packing (if you haven’t done so already), but I’m holding my shares for a couple more weeks. Green.
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