Bullpen Report: August 1, 2012

• Steve Cishek of the Miami Marlins’ nailed down his fifth save of the season tonight in a 4-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves. Cishek faced the minimum three batters — and although he surrendered a leadoff walk to Michael Bourn — needed just 12 pitches to get out of the inning. Tonight’s save was the fourth consecutive conversion since July 6th for the 6-6 right-hander who now owns a 1.86 ERA (3.97 xFIP) and a 2.1 K/BB. For those chasing saves, consider Cishek who is available in 69 percent of Yahoo! leagues.

Heath Bell, who hasn’t entered a game in a save situation since July 8th, appeared in the eighth inning of tonight’s game and earned his fourth hold of the year.

• As Ben noted in last night’s Bullpen Report, the Royals’ sent closer Jonathan Broxton to the Reds in a deadline deal and in-turn provided Greg Holland the opportunity to serve as the primary closer in Kansas City. Holland took immediate advantage of the opportunity tonight, earning his second save of the year on just 14 pitches in a 5-2 Royals victory over the Indians. Many fantasy baseball analysts pegged Holland as the Royals’ closer prior to the season, but a combination of Broxton’s success and Holland’s failure to perform like he did in 2011 resulted in the Broxton keeping the role until yesterday. Ben Duronio suggests that Holland’s inability to locate his fastball has been a cause of the increase in walks per nine — a key component keeping Holland from returning to 2011 form. Despite this concern, Holland needs to be owned in all relevant formats.

• Aroldis Chapman earned his 23rd save in 27 chances this evening for the Cincinnati Reds and lowered his season ERA to 1.39 while doing so. Chapman induced a line out, a groundout and a double to Carlos Quentin before striking out Logan Forsythe to end the game. The strikeout, Chapman’s 96th of the season, raised the closer’s already impressive K/BB to 6.86 while his K/9 dipped slightly to 16.72.

For those of you who play daily fantasy games like FanGraphs: The Game, or just like to stream players, here is a matchup you may be able to exploit.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Huston Street (SD) vs. CIN

Huston Street, who recently signed a two-year extension with the San Diego Padres, hasn’t had a save opportunity since July 25th. The arm is fresh and ready to go should Ross Ohlendorf and the Friars be in a save situation tomorrow afternoon at the Great American Ball Park. Street is a perfect 17-for-17 in save opportunities this year with a 0.88 ERA and a 0.62 WHIP.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	Off 25-Man
Arizona	J.J. Putz	David Hernandez	Takashi Saito
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Eric O’Flaherty	Jonny Venters
Baltimore	Jim Johnson	Pedro Strop	Darren O’Day
Boston	Alfredo Aceves	Andrew Miller	Mark Melancon	Andrew Bailey
Chicago (NL)	Carlos Marmol	James Russell	Shawn Camp
Chicago (AL)	Addison Reed	Brett Myers	Matt Thornton
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Jonathan Broxton	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Chris Perez	Vinnie Pestano	Tony Sipp
Colorado	Rafael Betancourt	Matt Belisle	Rex Brothers
Detroit	Jose Valverde	Joaquin Benoit	Octavio Dotel
Houston	Wilton Lopez	Francisco Cordero	Wesley Wright
KC	Greg Holland	Kelvin Herrera	Aaron Crow
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Scott Downs	Kevin Jepsen	Jordan Walden
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Brandon League	Javy Guerra
Miami	Steve Cishek	Heath Bell	Mike Dunn
Milwaukee	John Axford	Francisco Rodriguez	Kameron Loe
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Alex Burnett	Matt Capps
NY (NL)	Bobby Parnell	Jon Rauch	Ramon Ramirez	Frank Francisco
NY (AL)	Rafael Soriano	David Robertson	Boone Logan
Oakland	Ryan Cook	Sean Doolittle	Grant Balfour
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Antonio Bastardo	Jake Diekman
Pittsburgh	Joel Hanrahan	Jason Grilli	Jared Hughes
St. Louis	Jason Motte	Mitchell Boggs	Edward Mujica
SD	Huston Street	Luke Gregerson	Dale Thayer
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Javier Lopez
Seattle	Tom Wilhelmsen	Shawn Kelley	Stephen Pryor
Tampa Bay	Fernando Rodney	Kyle Farnsworth	Jake McGee
Texas	Joe Nathan	Mike Adams	Robbie Ross
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Brandon Lyon	Darren Oliver
Wash.	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen	Sean Burnett

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