Bullpen Report: April 16, 2018

Six of Sunday’s 15 scheduled games were postponed, robbing us of a potential opportunity to see if Arodys Vizcaino could get on track for the Braves or whether Joakim Soria or Nate Jones gets the next save opportunity for the White Sox.

Despite the limited schedule, we got yet another chapter in the Brewers’ bullpen saga. Craig Counsell brought Matt Albers into a 2-2 tie with the Mets in the bottom of the ninth inning, and he got within one out of delivering his team into extra innings. Instead of prolonging the game, Albers allowed Wilmer Flores‘ walk-off solo homer. Despite having pitched only once over the previous four days, Jacob Barnes was nowhere to be found in the seventh and eighth innings, as Counsell chose to set Albers up with Jeremy Jeffress and Dan Jennings. Barnes has apparently pitched his way out of the Brewers’ closer mix.

Based on the past week’s worth of games, it appears that Counsell’s preference is to use Albers for save opportunities, though he is not opposed to letting Josh Hader or Taylor Williams pitch multiple innings at the end of a game that is tied or features a small lead.

Jeurys Familia pitched a scoreless top of the ninth for the Mets, recording his first win of the season. He has yet to allow a run over 10 innings this season, and he is 7 for 7 in save opportunities. After struggling with control over his first three appearances of the season, Familia has been locating in the zone more consistently. When he issued a two-out walk to Jonathan Villar on Sunday, it broke a string of 25 straight batters faced without a walk.

The Cardinals’ closer situation gained some clarity, though it could be short-lived. Mike Matheny told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he had “reworked” team’s late-inning plan, and Bud Norris is clearly the Cardinals’ new closer. Norris got saves in Friday’s and Sunday’s games against the Reds. Meanwhile, Holland is going to be slowly integrated back into the closer’s role. Matheny said he plans to avoid using Holland on consecutive days and initially only bring him into games when there are no runners on base.

Entering Sunday’s series finale against the Mariners, Blake Treinen had not been used in eight days, but he showed no signs of rust in retiring the final four batters on 16 pitches. The A’s closer has now tossed 7.1 innings this season without having allowed an earned run, and over that limited sample, he is inducing swinging strikes at an ample 17.7 percent rate. Treinen’s sinker has been harder to hit, but it has not been a good pitch for getting grounders. According to Baseball Savant, his average sinker spin rate has risen from 2296 rpm last season to 2379 rpm so far in 2018, and accordingly, his sinker ground ball rate has fallen from 62.9 percent to 38.5 percent.  Treinen has yet to pay a price for this trend, having allowed a .100 Iso with no home runs. He has yet to pitch in a hitter-friendly venue, so owners should proceed with Treinen using some caution.

Sean Doolittle, who was part of the deal that sent Treinen from the Nationals to the A’s last season, has had strong flyball tendencies over the course of his career. He has generally been effective at preventing home runs, but that was not the case on Sunday. Doolittle got all three outs in the top of the ninth inning against the Rockies by way of the strikeout, but he also gave up Ian Desmond’s solo homer, which ultimately decided the game. The lefty has held opponents to a .115 batting average this season, but his Iso allowed now stands at .231.

Quick hits: A.J. Hinch has said he will not rely solely on Ken Giles as the Astros’ closer, and Chris Devenski is the latest reliever to be used in a high-leverage ninth-inning situation. Devenski, who earned the save in Friday’s 3-2 win over the Rangers, pitched a scoreless top-of-the-ninth in a 1-1 tie on Sunday…Jeff Banister countered with closer Keone Kela in the bottom of the ninth against the Astros, but it was Jake Diekman who notched the save in the 10th inning. The save was Diekamn’s first of the year…The Diamondbacks recalled Silvino Bracho to replace Taijuan Walker (forearm), who went on the 10-day disabled list. In his first 2018 appearance, Bracho held the Dodgers to one run over three innings, and he struck out seven of the 13 batters he faced.