Bullpen Report: April 25, 2017

A couple of postponed games and blowouts but here’s a few notes on the bullpens last night…

• The Rays used five pitchers for a two hit shutout against the Orioles tonight, which was capped off by Alex Colome’s fifth save. Colome took very kindly to the bullpen full time last year posting career bests in his strikeout rate and walk rates but the strikeouts have eluded him early on this year. It’s only been 10 innings but Colome has a meager five strikeouts and a swinging strike percentage of 8.2%, well below last season’s 15.1%. This isn’t to say that Colome could fall drastically in the same way I spoke about Brandon Kintzler last night, but his .179 BABIP might be making his owners overrate his standing among the elite relievers. Colome’s a good closer and I wouldn’t be mining for his backups but his shiny ERA is a bit misleading thus far. I expect him to continue to have a solid year but I would love to see his whiff percentage/strikeouts increase over his next few outings.

• The Cubs also pitched a shutout tonight, taking down the Pirates 1-0. Kyle Hendricks went six and then handed the ball off to Koji Uehara, Hector Rondon, and Wade Davis in that order. We were wondering where Hector Rondon was earlier this season but it looks like he might be right back in the thick of it in Chicago. We had Pedro Strop on the grid but he hasn’t pitched since April 21st and has a 8.53 BB/9. I think Rondon might have surpassed him in the pecking order and I’ve made the change on the grid. Rondon’s walk rate leaves a lot to be desired (5.40 BB/9) but he now has 11 strikeouts against five walks in 8.1 innings this year supporting a 1.08/3.64/3.82 ERA/FIP/xFIP line.

• Roberto Osuna blew a one-run lead in the ninth after allowing two hits and an earned run. In the offseason I was touting him as someone who could make a leap to the elite but he’s been shaky since returning from injury. He has yet to walk a batter though and his .412 BABIP and 57.1 LOB% is likely why his ERA is 5.40, albeit in only five innings pitched. Still, his SwStr% is down to 10% from a career 14.7% and his Zone Contact percentage is at 93.1% from a career rate of 79.9%. This is probably due to some decline in fastball velocity which stands at 94.4 mph from 95.7 mph last year. Normally that’s within the realm of normal, especially considering Osuna missed some time with injury but with the new measurement on velocities that’s closer to a 2+ mph drop which is more worrisome.

It’s obviously a ridiculously small sample here but while Osuna has looked a tad unlucky he’s also getting hit harder than he has before. If his velocity doesn’t creep up in May then it might be worth wondering if he’s 100% healthy.

• Santiago Casilla blew his first save this year, giving up a home run to Mike Trout in the 10th inning. As far as blown saves go, having Trout beat you is pretty defensible and I don’t think this moves the needle for the A’s order of operations in the late innings. For what it’s worth, Ryan Madson received the loss allowing the go ahead run in the 12th and Sean Doolittle pitched a perfect ninth (the game was tied then). It’s still likely that Doolittle would receive a save chance if/when the order is lefty heavy but for now Casilla is still the primary closer in this minor carousel.

• David Hernandez is back in action, pitching for the Angels with Huston Street and Cam Bedrosian sidelined.  In a tie game last night, Parker had the eighth inning and Hernandez the ninth, which might make you think he’s ahead in the pecking order but it’s looking like Bud Norris is their closer with Parker pitching the standard set up inning last night.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Fernando Rodney	JJ Hoover	Archie Bradley
Atlanta	Jim Johnson	Arodys Vizcaino	Jose Ramirez	Mauricio Cabrera
Baltimore	Brad Brach	Darren O’Day	Mychal Givens	Zach Britton
Boston	Craig Kimbrel	Matt Barnes	Heath Hembree	Carson Smith
CHI (NL)	Wade Davis	Hector Rondon	Koji Uehara
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Nate Jones	Dan Jennings
Cincy	Raisel Iglesias	Michael Lorenzen	Drew Storen
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Andrew Miller	Bryan Shaw
Colorado	Greg Holland	Adam Ottavino	Mike Dunn
Detroit	Francisco Rodriguez	Justin Wilson	Shane Greene
Houston	Ken Giles	Luke Gregerson	Will Harris
KC	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Peter Moylan
LAA	Bud Norris	Blake Parker	David Hernandez	Cam Bedrosian
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Sergio Romo	Pedro Baez	Grant Dayton
Miami	A.J. Ramos	Brad Ziegler	Kyle Barraclough
Milwaukee	Neftali Feliz	Corey Knebel	Jacob Barnes
Minnesota	Brandon Kintzler	Ryan Pressly	Matt Belisle	Glen Perkins
NY (NL)	Addison Reed	Jerry Blevins	Jeurys Familia
NY (AL)	Aroldis Chapman	Dellin Betances	Tyler Clippard
Oakland	Santiago Casilla	Sean Doolittle	Ryan Madson
Philly	Hector Neris	Joaquin Benoit	Jeanmar Gomez
Pittsburgh	Tony Watson	Daniel Hudson	Felipe Rivero
St. Louis	Seung Hwan Oh	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist
SD	Brandon Maurer	Ryan Buchter	Brad Hand	Carter Capps
SF	Mark Melancon	Hunter Strickland	Derek Law
Seattle	Edwin Diaz	Nick Vincent	Evan Scribner	Steve Cishek
TB	Alex Colome	Danny Farquhar	Austin Pruitt	Brad Boxberger
Texas	Matt Bush	Jeremy Jeffress	Jose Leclerc	Sam Dyson
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Jason Grilli	Joe Biagini
Wash.	Shawn Kelley	Koda Glover	Blake Treinen

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