Bullpen Report: April 24, 2014
-Welp, Daisuke Matsuzaka earned a save today — the first of his career — in a 1-2-3 top of the ninth-inning for the Metropolitans. Glad I didn’t make the “I’ll eat my hat bet” with Dice-K never earning a save, like I almost did last evening. Not sure how well I’d digest a brim. Anywho, Matsuzaka needed just 15 to pitches to retire Allen Craig, Daniel Descalso and Peter Bourjos to give the Mets a 4-1 victory over the Cardinals in Flushing. He now owns a 1.69 ERA (2.16 xFIP) in 5.1 innings on the hill. But don’t go racing to the waiver wire to put in your claims just yet, Kyle Farnsworth is still the go-to man for Terry Collins in save situations, thankfully. It’s just nice to know that the skipper considers Matsuzaka a sturdy backup just in case Farnsworth is unable to go, for whatever reason. Please pass the Tums.
–Jonathan Broxton notched his fourth save of the season as the Reds sunk the Pirates, 2-1. The burly right-hander needed just twelve pitches to seal the deal in a clean inning of work in the bottom half of the ninth. Broxton is doing a fair job of keeping the closer’s chair warm for Aroldis Chapman, who is slated to toss another live bullpen session this weekend in Atlanta. This time, Chapman will go without the screen, then head off to a rehab assignment if all goes well. Seems like a speedy recovery for what appeared to be a disastrous injury. It’s unlikely that you can pry Chapman from his fake owners if they’ve been waiting on him this long, but hey, maybe it’s worth a shot?
–Addison Reed made quick work of the Cubs in the home half of the ninth-inning today. The former crosstown rival fanned Mike Olt, then induced a Welington Castillo pop out and a groundout off the bat of Ryan Kalish on just ten pitches to clinch his fifth save of the young season. Reed is now 5-of-6 on the season in save chances with a 3.27 ERA (3.61 xFIP) and a 26% K%.
–Glen Perkins picked up his fifth save of the year in a 9-7 Twinkies victory over the Rays. Perkins has two strikeouts in five of his nine appearances. Not bad. Joe Nathan walked one, but struck out two en route to his fourth save of the season. As I noted in earlier versions of the Bullpen Report, Nathan’s velocity and ability to induce swings-and-misses are down a tick in the early part of ‘14. Hopefully those numbers creep back up as the season wears on. Huston Street surrendered a leadoff double to Bryce Harper, but escaped a bit of a jam to grab his eighth save of the season.
Lots of yelling and screaming on the Twitter machine regarding Ernesto Frieri’s status in the Angels’ bullpen. His last five appearances have been awful. He’s surrendered six runs on twelve hits in three-and-two-thirds. Some think he won’t hold down the ninth in the near future. And some think whoever said that is just crazy. If you’re not sure what to think but are chasing saves, Joe Smith seems to be the “just in case” add in Anaheim.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
In addition to contributing to the RotoGraphs blog, you can find Alan at his own site, TheFantasyFix.com and follow his nonsense on Twitter @TheFantasyFix.
Daniel Webb’s usage still doesn’t seem like he’s next in line for saves.
So, why is Gonzalez Germen still the “first” in line for closer? Empirically, Dice-K should at least be on the relevant radar. Why is Germen so worthy?
Germen hasn’t even had a Save. Germen wasn’t publicly acknowledged as a potential closer. Germen’s WHIP is kind of bad. Dice-K’s K/9 is far better.
I guess I’m just looking for a more thorough explanation for your matrix than an implied gut feeling.
+1. matsuzaka leads your writeup. he got a save last night. you link to information that the manager considers him first in line. scroll down to the grid, he’s not anywhere on it. are you even pretending to update the thing? or is there some other reason he’s not there
I just wanted to make sure you were paying attention, Wily Mo. Haven’t heard from you in some time.
As you can read in my other comment, I was unable to alter the grid this evening due to some technical issues on my end. Should be fixed by tomorrow. But by that time, what would’ve been tonight’s chart would’ve likely changed anyway.
I should’ve found a way to put a disclaimer in here, but I wasn’t able to alter the grid due to some technical difficulties. I’ve since thrown my computer into the ocean.
Don’t disagree with anything you’ve suggested. My thought process is something like “he earned five saves in ’13, four of which came in Triple-A and everyone else in the Mets’ bullpen is not all that good at throwing baseballs. He’s had one blowup this year, but prior to, allowed just 5-of-36 opposing batters to reach base.” Not perfect by any stretch, I know, but it’s an angle. I tend to not stress about the first/second chair stuff when the teams are in the red either.
Isn’t when teams are in the red that the perceived order of succession is most relevant for fantasy baseball?
Dear lord, please let Vic Black help the Mets not look like fools in the near future!
What’s so yellow about D-Rob and Tommy Hunter in Baltimore? They’re both on solid ground until something happens IMO
I think recent injury probably means D-Rob is a bit more likely to get re-injured or he might be off his game because of the decent time away from regular innings.
I’d like to see a few successful post-inury outings for Robertson before turning the green light back on in New York. Hunter is probably in the green now, but I wasn’t able to alter the grid tonight.
Would you trade away Freeman and J.Upton for Cargo and Harper?
Ron, you dumb bastard.
What’s up w Mujica?? Too early to dump him in a holds league? Drafted him as a handcuff and he’s been putrid.
who else would you pick up? there’s slim pickin out there
Slim Pickens is 90% owned in ESPN 🙁
Grid doesnt match written comments by author. No attention to detail. Lazy work IMO!
He states in the replies he had some technical difficulties updating the grid and it should be fixed by sometime today.
Kind of like the laziness of your comment for not being able to read the statements above?
Lazy reading more like it
Why Jepsen ahead of Kohn?
This Mets fan is picking up Dice-K. Does anyone really expect Farnsworth to hold the job down? He was reportedly shaking his elbow in pain the other day after a save against the Cardinals. It’s going to be a revolving door probably all year long. Might as well get your 2-3-4-5 SV’s out of it.
Axford or Frieri the resgt of the season?
Does Webb, Allen, or Ottavino become their team’s closer first?