Bullpen Report: April 28, 2016
Long after last evening’s Bullpen Report published, news broke of Huston Street landing on the disabled list with a strained oblique. Street first felt discomfort while warming up Wednesday and the Angels subsequently called upon right-hander Joe Smith in the ninth frame to convert a save. Smith surrendered a hit, but induced a game-ending double play courtesy of Mike Moustakas to earn his first save of the year on eight pitches (seven strikes).
Smith will be getting the save chances while Street is on the shelf — which could be up to a month, or more — so he’ll move left on the chart, while Street slides into the DL slot and Mike Morin or Jose Alvarez make their debut in the second chair. Although Smith should be stable, he is just 24-of-49 in save chances over his career. Eek. With that said, I’m going to move the Angels to yellow with the shakeup and until we learn more about the length of Street’s stay on the disabled list.
Another day, another solid outing by Jeanmar Gomez of the Phillies. With a three-run cushion, Gomez took the bump to to preserve the victory and allow Philly to move two games above .500. The right-hander surrendered a leadoff single to Ryan Zimmerman, but induced a flyout and a double play to escape the final frame unharmed to remain a perfect 7-for-7 in save opportunities this season. Gomez is 2-0 with seven saves, a 1.93 ERA (3.11 FIP) and a 7.09 K/9 in 14.1 innings of work.
Sean Doolittle appeared in the seventh-inning of the Athletics’ tilt with the Tigers in Detroit today. He issued a free pass, but fanned one in an otherwise uneventful day at the office. Ryan Madson followed with a clean frame of his own in the eighth, needing just 11 pitches (five strikes) to get through the minimum. And in that corner, Francisco Rodriguez was asked to clean up a bit of Blaine Hardy’s mess with two down and two ducks on the pond. A Stephen Vogt pop-out secured KRod’s fifth save in six opportunities this season and the 7-3 victory for Detroit. Tonight’s effort was the 391st save of Francisco Rodriguez’s career, pushing him ahead of Dennis Eckersley (390) and into sole position of sixth place all-time. Next up is Billy Wagner at 422.
Quick Hits: Arodys Vizcaino allowed an earned run on two hits, but struck out two to notch his second save on the year. To see how A.J. Ramos pitched, read the sentence above. Same exact line as Vizcaino, but has six notches in his belt compared to two. Brad Ziegler gave up a hit and a walk in the ninth, but escaped with his fifth save in as many chances for Arizona.
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.
Neris has pitched the 8th three outings in a row, I don’t get listing Hernandez in front of him. Also Hernandez sucks and Neris doesn’t.
Yea, will mention it to the guys. Like him a lot, wrote about him a few weeks back for holds and such here: http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/scheming-for-relief-thornburg-alvarez-neris-and-devenski/
Neris has been (very) good this year, but Hernandez has been victimized by a high BABIP and has a fairly shiny 2.51 SIERA. As much as it’d be nice (for fantasy owners, at least) if managers arranged their pecking order by peripherals, my guess is Hernandez would still be second in line given that he leads the time in inLI (1.75 to Neris’ 1.13), meaning he’s being used in far higher leverage situations.
Think you are being a little hard on Joe Smith – would guess the vast majority of his blown saves were not truly save opportunities. He comes into the 8th inning of a 1 run game and gives up a HR, that counts as a BS but he was never really in line for a save. 194 out of 219 (including his holds) is probably a better representation of how often he has locked down his portion of a save vs. how often he has blown it.
A little hard on him? Was it the “Eek?” Very objective outside of that. He’s going to get the call, but not a ton else.
Came here to make the same point – save conversion % is a meaningless stat for middle relievers. There are plenty of reasons not to think too highly of Smith, but that’s not one of them.
I’m with Chad Young. The Blown Saves stats for middle relievers are a reflection of role, and aren’t of any use when discussing actual save percentage in save situations. Most solid set-up men will have negative save opportunity stats by virtue of being handed small leads with no chance for a save.
This column is tremendously useful though, Mr. Harrison, don’t get me wrong.
isnt Wilson next in line after KRod?
Just quickly looking at appearances (don’t have a ton of time to dissect when/where/why/results at the moment), Lowe has made six appearances in the eighth inning compared to Wilson’s three. With that said, Wilson has been lights-out to start the season (0.77 FIP, 33.3% K-BB%).
I don’t understand how Fien is ahead of May. What’s that about?
Yes, this needs to be corrected. I’ll make the change in the chart now and should be reflected in the next BR. Thanks, Byrone.
The Phils are 12-10, not one game over .500.
Thanks, Jim. Wrote this before the standings reflected yesterday’s victory. Cheers.