Bullpen Report: April 15, 2013

• With Joel Hanrahan out with a hamstring injury Andrew Bailey came on for his first save opportunity of the year and proceeded to blow the lead, allowing an RBI single to Ben Zobrist who knocked in Desmond Jennings after he singled and stole second. Fortunately for Bailey owners, the Red Sox scored in the bottom half of the inning, getting Bailey the win. Koji Uehara pitched a scoreless eighth inning and while he might be the best reliever of the bunch in Boston the Red Sox don’t want him to pitch on consecutive days too often, limiting his potential to close games consistently, if at all this season. Still, as I mentioned previously, with a 14.33 K/BB last year and a career 2.67 FIP as a reliever, Uehara can be a useful fantasy player for many teams. Bailey may have blown the save, but he’s still pitched great this year (0.74 FIP/15.19 K/9) and significantly better than Joel Hanrahan. Hanrahan hasn’t lost the job, but if he doesn’t pitch well upon his return, it won’t be his for much longer. In spite of today’s results, pick up Bailey if you need saves.

• Due to a tricep strain, Sergio Santos will be placed on the DL tomorrow. Santos was an intriguing speculative saves pick in drafts this year with Casey Janssen returning from shoulder surgery in the offseason. However, Janssen has pitched great this year, and continued so tonight, picking up his fourth save against White Sox. In five innings in 2013 Janssen has given up one run and struck eight batters with four clean saves. It’s safe to say that Janssen’s job is secure but with Santos out, if anything were to happen to Janssen, Steve Delabar would be the next man up. Only seven pitchers had a higher K/9 than Delabar last year and with his strike out potential and closeness to the ninth inning, consider adding Delabar if you’re in need of strikeouts, ratio help or want to bet on Janssen’s shoulder health and/or success this year. 

• The Cardinals bullpen mess didn’t necessarily get much cleaner this evening. Mitchell Boggs entered the game in the ninth inning tonight but in a non-save situation with the Cardinals up four runs. Boggs pitched a scoreless ninth but also allowed two batters to reach base. I’m not going to change the Closer Grid until there is more substantial evidence, but Mike Podhorzer made a great case calling Mujica the Cardinals closer and earlier this evening St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Joe Strauss sent out this tweet. Additionally, Jennifer Langosch tweeted “Had one more baserunner reached in ninth, Edward Mujica would have been in game.” While Edward Mujica very well could have been the closer for tonight’s game, nothing seems official for the season quite yet. Either way, Mujica is a must add for teams in need of saves or with an empty roster spot as you never know who will run away with the closer job.

Closer Grid:

 

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	J.J. Putz	David Hernandez	Heath Bell
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Eric O’Flaherty	Jordan Walden
Baltimore	Jim Johnson	Pedro Strop	Darren O’Day
Boston	Joel Hanrahan	Andrew Bailey	Koji Uehara
CHI (NL)	Shawn Camp	James Russell	Carlos Marmol	Kyuji Fujikawa
CHI (AL)	Addison Reed	Jesse Crain	Matt Thornton
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Jonathan Broxton	Sam LeCure
Cleveland	Chris Perez	Vinnie Pestano	Joe Smith
Colorado	Rafael Betancourt	Matt Belisle	Wilton Lopez
Detroit	Joaquin Benoit	Octavio Dotel	Phil Coke	Bruce Rondon
Houston	Jose Veras	Wesley Wright	Hector Ambriz
KC	Greg Holland	Kelvin Herrera	Tim Collins
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Scott Downs	Sean Burnett	Ryan Madson
LAD	Brandon League	Kenley Jansen	Ronald Belisario
Miami	Steve Cishek	Jon Rauch	Ryan Webb
Milwaukee	Jim Henderson	John Axford	Michael Gonzalez
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Bobby Parnell	Brandon Lyon	LaTroy Hawkins	Frank Francisco
NY (AL)	Mariano Rivera	David Robertson	Joba Chamberlain
Oakland	Grant Balfour	Ryan Cook	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Mike Adams	Antonio Bastardo
Pittsburgh	Jason Grilli	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Mitchell Boggs	Trevor Rosenthal	Edward Mujica	Jason Motte
SD	Huston Street	Luke Gregerson	Dale Thayer
SF	Sergio Romo	Santiago Casilla	Jeremy Affeldt
Seattle	Tom Wilhelmsen	Carter Capps	Stephen Pryor
TB	Fernando Rodney	Joel Peralta	Jake McGee
Texas	Joe Nathan	Jason Frasor	Tanner Scheppers
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Steve Delabar	Darren Oliver	Sergio Santos
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Drew Storen	Tyler Clippard

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