(Belated) Bullpen Report: September 13, 2016
• Some strange things going on in San Francisco. Santiago Casilla lost his role as closer earlier and Hunter Strickland who recorded a save on the 11th proceeded to give up four runs last night. Steven Okert, a lefty in the Giants pen, relieved Strickland in the ninth but promptly blew the save after allowing a homer to Ryan Schimpf. Bruce Bochy confirmed that Strickland is still his closer but Derek Law is due back today making Strickland’s leash considerably tighter. Sergio Romo and Will Smith might just be considered righty and lefty specialists at this point but they could possibly see some more chances and I wouldn’t fully rule out Casilla either, depending on how he finishes the year.
• Seung Hwan Oh is dealing with some groin soreness and although he’s just day-to-day he was unavailable last night. In his place Kevin Siegrist nailed down the save for the Cardinals, confirming his spot in the pecking order. Mike Matheny is hopeful that Oh will return today but expect Siegrist to continue to see the ninth if Oh is not right yet.
• Rough luck for Jeurys Familia last night as the Mets blew the save in the ninth only to regain the lead in the top of the 10th. Three infield singles and an error by Jose Reyes turned the Mets 3-1 lead into a tie game. As far as blown saves go, this one by Familia was as innocent as it gets. Addison Reed threw a perfect eighth as his fantastic season setting up continues. Fernando Salas started the 10th inning for the save but handed the ball over to Jerry Blevins to finish the game against ex-Met and lefty Daniel Murphy.
• Quick Hits: Dellin Betances recorded a four out save (11) while striking out two. It never gets old to check his pitching line – an inflated 2.36 ERA but a 1.48/1.61 FIP/xFIP along with a 43.8% strikeouts rate and a 52% groundball percentage. He’s good. Tony Watson had a few blips over the last couple of weeks but he threw a perfect frame last night for his 12th save on the year. Jeanmar Gomez blew the lead for the Phillies giving Watson a save chance. I don’t see the Phillies doing anything drastic here in the final weeks but with Hector Neris being the better pitcher and already throwing in the eighth, I’ve changed their situation to yellow. Zach Britton (42), Ryan Madson (30) and AJ Ramos (35) recorded saves as well. Tanner Scheppers recorded a save and could see the grid although Sam Dyson is still in the closer’s chair for now and Kevin Quackenbush got the save (2) filling in for Brandon Maurer who had the night off. There was no save situation for the Reds but Tony Cingrani gave up two runs in the ninth. Raisel Iglesias might continue to see a few save opportunities for the Reds along with Cingrani in the last month.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
When he's not focusing on every team's bullpen situation, Ben can be found blogging at Ben's Baseball Bias and on Twitter @BensBias
You could also add “ex-Nat and lefty Blevins”
I’m a huge fan of Bochy’s but this is officially the most disappointed I have ever been with him. Ever. It is obvious to anyone who is paying attention to the team that they don’t have anyone who is equipped to be the closer, in terms of stuff, psychological makeup, experience, or some combination of these. It should be obvious that they should do what the Astros and Indians (for example) are doing by dealing with game situations, which batters are in the game, how rested everyone is, etc., and simply set aside the concept of closer at least for this season and do everything by committee. The bullpen isn’t bad at all–they are 15th in xFIP and 13th in ERA–but they are hurting the team seriously because Bochy is insisting to making his plans as though there is a real closer when there isn’t. Both Casilla and Strickland have serious lefty-righty issues but Bochy assumed first with Casilla and now with Strickland that they’ll just be able to pitch the whole 9th and so he burns his trustworthy anti-lefty specialists (Lopez and Smith) before the 9th–that’s how Okert wound up in the game yesterday in a situation where he was in over his head. The entire question of ‘Who’s our closer?’ has gotten so hysterical that anyone who’s in the role is going to be a nervous wreck. Casilla fouled up so many times in closing situations this year, he was clearly completely overwrought, but Bochy just kept sending him out there instead of trying to calm down the situation by giving other people a shot in the 9th here and there. Now that Casilla’s out, Bochy took all of one save to be convinced that Strickland is the new closer, and Strickland was so freaked out that he immediately blew a three-run lead in the 9th, featuring forgetting to cover 1st on a grounder to the 1st baseman, then walking Myers (hitting .208 in the 2nd half of the season) with the bases loaded, and then not handling a hard grounder back to him which could have been a game-ending double play. Which led to Schimpf coming up and Okert coming in. This sort of thing has happened many times this year (3 times resulting in home runs by Jake Lamb alone) with Bochy either leaving Casilla in against a lefty or bringing in some ineffective lefty to face him because the effective lefties had already been used up (which lefty was effective and which was ineffective has changed over the course of the year, but it’s always been the less effective one who’s been brought in to try to get one of Casilla’s mess because the effective one has already been used up). I was assuming that because of Casilla’s long-standing status as the team’s closer this was somehow about the specifics of that situation, but now it turns out that Bochy is doing the same thing with Strickland. I can’t believe he’s still saying Strickland is the closer, he just doesn’t know how to deal with the situation and he’s panicking.
Deep breaths; in through the nose, out through the mouth. Try repeating a mantra, such as “It’s only a game.”
In this article at least, Bochy is saying all of the write things with regards to not having a set closer:
http://www.sacbee.com/sports/mlb/san-francisco-giants/article101694462.html
He said that on monday and then went out on tuesday and did exactly the opposite, burning his quality lefties and then sending strickland out in the 9th because he’d done okay last time. He was acting exactly as though strickland was already the closer.
I’m just embarrassed I wrote “write” instead of “right” and didn’t catch it in time to edit it. Hopefully Bochy’s learned by now. The Giants bullpen should be pretty interesting going forward.
longest post I’ve ever seen on FG and it’s about the giants bullpen of all things.