Bullpen Report: April 19, 2015
After watching Sugar Ray Marimon give up a game-winning home run to Josh Donaldson Saturday, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez hinted that he’d lean towards using Jason Grilli in tie games on the road, instead of waiting to protect a lead that may never materialize. We didn’t get a chance to see that in action today, but Grilli did notch his sixth save. Cody Martin got the nod over a suddenly struggling Jim Johnson to set up Grilli. It would have been Johnson’s third appearance in three days, so maybe there’s nothing to read into here, but giving up two earned on both Friday and Saturday doesn’t garner much confidence. Interestingly, he had identical lines both nights, Friday he earned a hold, Saturday a blown save. Maybe monitor this early in the week, and see what Gonzalez does with his pen if you’re holding Johnson.
Dellin Betances threw 23 pitches to get his five outs. Something about a dominant reliever getting more than three outs just makes my heart sing. Andrew Miller struck out the side to get the save as the Yankees swept the Rays. I think we’re about at the point where all of us DellinCorp owners can just stop wishing for some saves from him and start looking elsewhere for them. Keep him of course, but it’s becoming apparent that he’s just not going to be providing many saves this year.
Greg Holland will be on the shelf for a couple of weeks with a strain of his right pectoral muscle. Wade Davis and Kelvin Herrera will just move up to pitch the ninth and eighth respectively. Based on today’s usage against Oakland, Ryan Madson will slot into the seventh inning role until Holland returns. Nice little bonus for all of the Wade Davis owners out there.
After pitching both Friday and Saturday, getting touched up for the loss yesterday, Craig Kimbrel was unavailable today, allowing Joaquin Benoit to collect his first save. Along with his three wins, 1.13 ERA and 1.00 WHIP, you haven’t been hurting if you kept him after the Kimbrel acquisition.
Neftali Feliz was called into the game in Seattle in the eighth inning with the bases loaded after Tanner Scheppers and Keone Kela walked four Mariners, bringing up the tying run in the person of Nelson Cruz, who had homered twice already. After he had faced the rest of the Mariners, Feliz faced Cruz again and delivered a walk-off single on the last of the 47 pitches that he threw.
Of Note: Jeurys Familia got his sixth save of the season as the Mets beat the Marlins again. Jared Hughes earned his fifth hold of the season, striking out two in a perfect seventh. Tony Watson and Mark Melancon followed as usual to close it out. Drew Storen worked around two hits to escape with his fourth save. Chad Qualls got the day off, and Tony Sipp took his spot with Pat Neshek and Luke Gregerson to shut down the Angels to seal a 4-3 win. Qualls struck out three in his perfect inning on Saturday to bounce back from an ugly outing on Friday. Carlos Rodon has been called up by the White Sox and will be pitching out of the bullpen. Pick him up if you have the space, because he’s not going to be in the pen forever. Grant Balfour has been DFA’d by the Rays and has been replaced by Ernesto Frieri on the closer grid.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
Darren contributes to RotoGraphs when he isn’t watching the Braves or shoveling snow. Follow him on Twitter @shinesie.
Rosenthal rested tonight despite having only pitched twice since 4/12 and only 1 day in a row prior plus off day tomorrow.
Of course it was Reds awful 7-8-9 hitters so Matheny probably could have put himself in the game and closed it out.
Thougths on Rodon? Do you think he could be this year Bettances? 100 k’s low era and whip? As RP
I doubt he stays in the pen long enough to collect those kinds of numbers, my guess is with Noesi and Danks at the back end of the rotation, one of those guys will end up getting bumped to make room for Rondon.
What about Cody Martin? he has already 13 k’s.Do you think he can keep de k’s? with low era and whip?
Aaron Sanchez was a great closer last year, and has been a lousy starter this year. The Blue Jays have been looking at promoting career minor leaguer Scott Copeland, according to The Fan 590, who has turned into a ground ball monster this year after always excelling in that regard.
CBS Sports may have been the source for The Fan:http://fantasynews.cbssports.com/fantasybaseball/update/25152384/report-blue-jays-front-office-keeping-tabs-on-scott-copeland
Fangraphs:
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa549354&position=P
Carson Cistulli uncovered Scott in an article last December, but for some reason the artcile is not linked to his name above: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-brandon-webbs-of-the-near-future/
Considering that the Jays need to limit Sanchez’s innings in any case, I think a return to the bullpen is imminent, where he will slide back into the closer role. I think right now Delabar is not even slightly looming for the closer role, but Sanchez definitely is.
Also of note was a rough outing for Miguel Castro today. He wasn’t terrible, but a good outing for him after Cecil’s terrible outing Saturday would have probably helped him. I have to wonder how long until Osuna or even Liam Hendriks get a shot at higher leverage situations.
I know Hendriks was a disaster as a starter, but he seems to have put up solid numbers in a Middle Relief role so far this year and his K numbers are solid enough (Small Sample Size obviously). Plus he has slowly been working his way up the pecking order in Toronto, he started out the year as a long relief candidate, but has been working some 7th innings in recent games where the Jays have been tied or ahead.
Huh?
Castro didn’t pitch today.
Ah, sorry I was thinking of Saturday’s game. Either way, I think Castro could be sliding down the pecking order quickly. At times he looks like a Rule 5 guy out there, great stuff, but suspect control. I could see him getting bumped soon for Hendriks, Osuna, etc.
Castro is about to get the “gig” IMO he’s got some electric stuff.. What a storyline 20 yr old closer dominates…. Bullpen shakes out like this Castro: 9th, Sanchez:8th,
Cecil (lefty only high lev) 7th whoever who cares its the 7th
Castro has electric stuff, but his control can be spotty at times and his recent couple appearances have been unimpressive compared to his first couple. Plus, I wonder if the Jays dont try to keep his arbitration number lower by not allowing him to collect a bunch of saves so early in his career.
I still like him, but at this point I’m not sure who Toronto turns to next, Castro blew a save Saturday and prior to that was brought in during the 7th inning while Cecil got another shot at the Closer’s job. I think it’s a total role of the dice in regards to who gets the next save chance in Toronto.
Cecil got lit up for 3 runs on April 18th. No chance he sees the 9th inning any time soon.
In a points league, I have Storen, Ottavino, and Castro. I had Jorge De La Rosa stashed on the DL, but he’s coming off today to start. Would you roll with Castro or De La Rosa at the end of your bench in a 16 team league? Since it’s points, there is no save category, so I could cut Castro pretty easily, although De La Rosa isn’t really an amazing option, this is for my last pitcher slot on the bench. Thanks!
Anyone else think Ziegler is next in line in ARI, not Marshall?
Marshall seems to have the eighth inning at the moment, but he hasn’t been very good. Based on usage I go with Marshall; based on performance I go with Ziegler.
If Daniel Hudson can prove he can stay healthy and pitch on back to back days consistently, I think he could end up emerging as an option behind Reed as well and potentially a closer. His velocity has been good since coming back, though the K’s havent been there.
I think Ziegler is overtaking Marshall for that set up job if Marshall doesnt get better really quickly, but we also have no clue how Hale feels about using him as a closer if Reed loses the Closer’s job. It took Gibson a LONG time and basically running out of options before he was willing to use Ziegler in that role. Same could happen under Chip Hale.
There really should be some detail given on Melancon’s Sunday save, considering how awful he looked last week. Sunday he worked his fastball at 90-92, still well off his typical 95, but certainly less scary than the 88-90 he had been averaging…
Still needs to regain a few ticks, but it was encouraging.
What about Yimi Garcia in LA I see him maybe leap frogging hatcher at this point he’s looked exceptional