(Belated) Bullpen Report: August 22, 2016

• We have Cody Allen in the first chair on the grid below but Andrew Miller secured the win for the Indians getting his 11th save on the year. Cody Allen was never expected to received every save opportunity so he will remain first but this situation is still red and it likely will stay that way for the rest of the season as a somewhat committee between the two. In more exciting news, Miller struck out the side and now has 93 strikeouts in 53 innings pitched, supporting a 44.5% strikeout rate which is only 0.3% behind league leader and former teammate, Dellin Betances. Miller is the more effective reliever but using him in higher leveraged situations is an effective strategy by the Indians.

• Edwin Diaz allowed two baserunners but didn’t allow a run en route to his tenth save for the Mariners. His last few outings haven’t been as dominant as he was previously but his that pace was unsustainable. Still, Diaz has a 42.6% strikeout rate and a 2.25/1.90/1.80 ERA/FIP/xFIP pitching line on the year, cementing him as one of the league’s top closers.

• Speaking of top closers, Zach Britton threw a perfect ninth picking up two strikeouts for his 38th save. Britton is 38 for 38 on save opportunities and has allowed just three earned runs in 51.1 innings pitched. It’s hard to imagine a closer being more valuable than a starter but Britton is getting some deserving Cy Young love along with some MVP chatter as well. We can bicker about if he’s deserving of either but a 0.53 ERA held up by a 31.6% strikeout rate and an insane 80.7% ground ball rate has made Britton an extremely valuable resource to the O’s and fantasy squads. Britton currently ranks 13th on ESPN’s Player Rater and according to Baseball Monster he’s been the fourth best pitcher. It’s hard to imagine Britton matching this season next year but over the past three years he has a 1.44 ERA in 193.1 innings pitched, he clearly knows how to get guys out.

• Quick Hits: Ken Giles allowed two hits and an unearned run working towards his fourth save. Tyler Thornburg was perfect for his fifth save for the Brewers, lowering his ERA to 1.92. Enrique Burgos blew his third save for the Diamondbacks but then got the win. Burgos hasn’t been particularly good at keeping leads but neither was Jake Barrett earlier this year and Dan Hudson has a 6.15 ERA. Barrett or Hudson could see save opportunities in the future but this situation is turning into what we saw with the Reds earlier this season and it might be best to avoid. Arodys Vizcaino allowed four runs while only getting two outs. It will be a little while until he shakes off enough rust to replace Jim Johnson in the ninth.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Enrique Burgos	Daniel Hudson	Jake Barrett
Atlanta	Jim Johnson	Mauricio Cabrera	Arodys Vizcaino
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Brad Brach	Mychal Givens	Darren O’Day
Boston	Craig Kimbrel	Brad Ziegler	Matt Barnes	Koji Uehara
CHI (NL)	Aroldis Chapman	Carl Edwards Jr.	Travis Wood	Hector Rondon
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Nate Jones	Matt Albers
Cincy	Tony Cingrani	Raisel Iglesiasi	Michael Lorenzen
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Andrew Miller	Bryan Shaw
Colorado	Adam Ottavino	Jake McGee	Scott Oberg	Carlos Estevez
Detroit	Francisco Rodriguez	Justin Wilson	Shane Greene
Houston	Ken Giles	Luke Gregerson	Will Harris
KC	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Matt Strahm	Wade Davis
LAA	Fernando Salas	Deolis Guerra	J.C. Ramirez	Cam Bedrosian
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Joe Blanton	Adam Liberatore
Miami	Fernando Rodney	A.J. Ramos	Kyle Barraclough
Milwaukee	Tyler Thornburg	Corey Knebel	Carlos Torres
Minnesota	Brandon Kintzler	Ryan Pressly	Taylor Rogers	Glen Perkins
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Addison Reed	Hansel Robles
NY (AL)	Dellin Betances	Tyler Clippard	Adam Warren
Oakland	Ryan Madson	John Axford	Ryan Dull	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jeanmar Gomez	Hector Neris	Edubray Ramos
Pittsburgh	Tony Watson	Neftali Feliz	Felipe Rivero
St. Louis	Seung Hwan Oh	Kevin Siegrist	Jonathan Broxton
SD	Brandon Maurer	Kevin Quackenbush	Brad Hand	Ryan Buchter
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Derek Law
Seattle	Edwin Diaz	Steve Cishek	Tom Wilhelmsen
TB	Alex Colome	Brad Boxberger	Xavier Cedeno
Texas	Sam Dyson	Jeremy Jeffress	Matt Bush
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Jason Grilli	Joaquin Benoit
Wash.	Mark Melancon	Shawn Kelley	Blake Treinen

[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]