Bullpen Report: April 20, 2015
Not a large schedule of games today but a few bullpen bullet points to mull over this evening or in the morning with your coffee…
• Joakim Soria closed his fifth door of the year tonight, pitching a perfect inning against the Yankees. Meanwhile Joe Nathan is eligible to come off the DL on Wednesday but will likely “need a simulated game or rehab appearance in the minor leagues to get up to game speed.” So, the same Joe Nathan that was horrible in 2014, horrible in Spring Training and hurt himself immediately upon the start of the season is coming back soon and last we heard he was going to reclaim the job from Soria immediately. I’m tempted to call BS on Ausmus putting Nathan over Soria right away, but we might have to take the manager at his word as he makes the call. However, even if Nathan returns at closer I don’t like his chances of holding it for the rest of the year. Soria is the better option and I’m betting still ends the year with more saves. If Nathan is sitting on the wire, it’s worth picking him up and flipping him if/when he’s the closer again, but other than that hold onto Soria.
• Carlos Rodon was called up to the big leagues today but will be pitching in relief for now. John Danks (6.06 ERA/5.34 FIP) and Hector Noesi aren’t exactly lighting it up in the back end of the rotation so it’s likely that Rodon doesn’t stay in relief the entire season. It should be noted that the White Sox were patient with Chris Sale as he threw over an entire season in relief before seeing the rotation. Given the current team’s status, I don’t think Rodon will be on that path and expect to see him light it up in relief before moving into the rotation by the second half of the season. Regardless of team need, I would pick up Rodon immediately on your fantasy team as he can be a real asset. Rodon didn’t see his debut tonight but David Robertson threw a perfect ninth with two strikeouts, picking up his first win of the season. Robertson had some health issues to start the season but he’s seemingly put that behind him and should be expected to be his regular bad self this year. In additional White Sox bullpen news, Jacob Petricka was activated off of the DL and with Zach Putnam struggling, Petricka could see some more valuable innings but we’ll have to see how the play it out with Petricka and Rodon in tow.
• There are blown saves and then there are blown saves and Cody Allen had the latter tonight. Allen only recorded one out while allowing six hits and four runs in the process to blow a three run lead for the Indians. There aren’t any health issues and Allen’s velocity tonight was in line with last season so this is simply a bad outing from an otherwise great reliever. It can be maddening adding and dropping players for speculative saves early in the season so save yourself the time looking up Bryan Shaw on the wire as Allen’s job is still very secure.
• Good news for Kansas City today as Greg Holland’s injury isn’t too severe. His pectoral strain is “lowest grade pectoral strain you can get.”Wade Davis has admirably held down the fort with Holland out (no surprise there) and that will continue, but Holland should be closing games for KC relatively soon. If you’re able to get Davis on the cheap with the good Holland news, I would take a stab as Davis is an undervalued commodity even without getting saves. Plus, while this is good news for Holland, no injury is ever a good thing for a pitcher.
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
In regards to Rodon, how aggressive should I be in getting him? I could drop an injured RP I own like McGee or Doolittle, but I am leery to do that. I could also drop a pitcher like Burnett, Hughes, Tillman, Colon or Desclafini, but again that seems tough to do. I don’t really have an available bench bat to drop with Rendon and Zobrist and now Lucroy hurt. Any advice on how aggressive to pursure Rodon?
With the exception of maybe Hughes, all of those pitchers seem worth dropping for Rondon, even if he starts in the BP. Depending on your league, Rondon could hold tremendous value considering he will probably have dual SP/RP eligibility once he does enter the rotation. That is not all that significant in some leagues, but in others, it is the holy grail.
He asked about Carlos, not Hector or Bruce.
I’d comfortably drop someone like Burnett. Rodon, who could end up not being that good, has a higher ceiling. However, more caution is advised in one year leagues. In keeper leagues, it’s all hands on deck.