Bullpen Report: April 19, 2014

• Jose Valverde’s days as closer might be numbered. Valverde entered the ninth inning tonight and gave up a three run homer to Justin Upton. Although none of Valverde’s runs were “earned” it’s the fourth home run he’s allowed in his last three outings. Papa Grande’s been able to miss more bats this year (13.5 SwStr%) but his gopheritis and control issues may have come to an end, at least as the closer. Via David Lennon Collins is going to “have to talk about Valverde as closer“, which means teams should look to add Kyle Farnsworth immediately. As of this writing a change has not been made but I’d expect Kyle Farnsworth to get the next save opp for the Mets.

• Craig Kimbrel was removed from the ninth inning tonight with Jordan Walden closing out the game for his first save of the year. Kimbrel has struggled with shoulder fatigue recently and although he was iffy tonight, it doesn’t seem to be injury related as his fastball was still reaching 97-98 mph. I would attribute tonight’s outing due to rust over any huge injury concerns but would still keep an eye on the situation. David Carpenter received the previous save in place of Kimbrel but he was spotty tonight as well allowing four hits and two earned in his inning of work. It’s a toss-up on next in line in Atlanta but at this point I might side with Walden.

• Jason Grilli blew his second save of the season tonight against the Brewers. Grilli’s velocity has been right in line with what it was last year but his control has suffered of late. Grilli supported a 2.34 BB/9 last year but it’s ballooned to 5.14 thus far in 2014. Grilli was fantastic last year but so was Mark Melancon in relief of Grilli when he was on the shelf. Grilli demands a long leash and I’m keeping him as green for now but it’s worth taking a look Melancon’s way. Melancon doesn’t have the strike out rates of some other premier set up options, but he’ll help your teams ratios (2.18 FIP). After taking the lead, K-Rod finished off the Pirates for his sixth save of the year. Although Roenicke wanted to get Jim Henderson back into the role, he’s struggled to get back to form in setup duty. Meanwhile Francisco Rodriguez has been one of the best relievers in the league (1.18 FIP). The Brewers are playing well and should be fighting for a playoff spot all summer long, at this point I don’t see them making a switch with K-Rod playing so well right now, I’m changing this situation to green.

• Chad Qualls blew the save for the Astros in particularly bad fashion, giving up three runs, including a Jed Lowrie home run while only recording one out in a loss to the Athletics.  Qualls’ has been a little unlucky early on this year as a .579 BABIP against is due for some regression but I’m keeping Josh Fields as first in line in this committee and moving Albers up a spot. However, as we have recommended all season, this might be a situation to avoid all together, nobody is a winner in the Astros closer carousel.

• Quick Hits: Trevor Rosenthal (4), LaTroy Hawkins (5), Kenley Jansen (6), Joakim Soria (3) and Greg Holland (6) all recorded saves tonight. Huston Street was unavailable after throwing 31 pitches last night and Joaquin Benoit notched his first save of the season for the Padres. And finally, Koji Uehara looks like his old bad self, striking out three batters for his fourth save of the season.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Addison Reed	J.J. Putz	Brad Ziegler
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	David Carpenter
Baltimore	Tommy Hunter	Darren O’Day	Ryan Webb
Boston	Koji Uehara	Edward Mujica	Junichi Tazawa
CHI (NL)	Pedro Strop	Hector Rondon	Jose Veras	Kyuji Fujikawa
CHI (AL)	Matt Lindstrom	Daniel Webb	Ronald Belisario	Nate Jones
Cincy	Johnathan Broxton	Sam LeCure	J.J. Hoover	Aroldis Chapman
Cleveland	John Axford	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw
Colorado	LaTroy Hawkins	Rex Brothers	Matt Belisle
Detroit	Joe Nathan	Al Alburquerque	Joba Chamberlain
Houston	Josh Fields	Matt Albers	Chad Qualls	Jesse Crain
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Aaron Crow
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Joe Smith	Kevin Jepsen	Dane de la Rosa
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Chris Perez	Brian Wilson
Miami	Steve Cishek	A.J. Ramos	Mike Dunn
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Jim Henderson	Will Smith	Brandon Kintzler
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Jose Valverde	Kyle Farnsworth	Gonzalez Germen	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	Shawn Kelley	Adam Warren	Dellin Betances	David Robertson
Oakland	Luke Gregerson	Sean Doolittle	Jim Johnson
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Antonio Bastardo	Mike Adams
Pittsburgh	Jason Grilli	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Carlos Martinez	Kevin Siegrist	Jason Motte
SD	Huston Street	Joaquin Benoit	Alex Torres
SF	Sergio Romo	Santiago Casilla	Jeremy Affeldt
Seattle	Fernando Rodney	Danny Farquhar	Tom Wilhelmsen
TB	Grant Balfour	Heath Bell	Joel Peralta
Texas	Joakim Soria	Alexi Ogando	Jason Frasor	Neftali Feliz
Toronto	Sergio Santos	Steve Delabar	Brett Cecil	Casey Janssen
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen

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