Bullpen Report: August 1, 2013

–Steve Cishek surrendered a leadoff single, but an induced groundout sandwiched between two strikeouts got him out of the ninth-inning unscathed enroute to his 23rd save. The lanky right-hander is now 23-of-25 on the season — his last blown save coming on June 4th against the Phillies — and sports a 3.08 ERA (2.94 FIP) and a 1.15 WHIP. As we look further into (some of) Cishek’s numbers entering tonight, it seems as if he’s pretty close to being the same pitcher he’s been since entering the league. His velocity appears to be holding steady on each of his offerings, both his swinging strike rate (9.2%) and whiff rate (23.9%) are right inline with his career numbers and his batted ball profile hasn’t changed all that much.

Aside from the 15 hits and four walks he’s allowed in the last ten games, the Marlins closer has had himself one heckuva season (so far). If I could go back to our All-Star Break closer rankings I would definitely have Steve Cishek ranked in the top-20, ahead of guys like Jonathan Papelbon, Francisco Rodriguez (we should have know he would be traded!) and Ernesto Frieri. Ah well, hindsight is 20/20.

-Speaking of Francisco Rodriguez, well, nevermind he didn’t pitch tonight for his new team. But Jim Johnson did and earned his league-leading 37th save for his efforts. Johnson, another guy I should’ve ranked higher in my mid-season closer rankings, may very well have more saves than strikeouts by the end of the season. He’s currently sitting at 37 saves with 38 strikeouts. And yes, it has been done before — In 2005, Bob Wickman recorded 45 saves against just 41 strikeouts.

-Plenty of rumors about a potential Jonathan Papelbon trade were flying around the interwebs this week with the trade deadline coming to a close. But Papelbon, his (fairly) poor season and even not-so-team/fan-friendly salary remain in the City of Brotherly Love for the time being. Tonight, Papelbon coughed up the lead on four hits and a walk, leading to two earned runs and his sixth blown save of the season. The right-hander is now 20-of-26 on the season in save opportunities and owns a 2.58 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP. The biggest red flag (that I can see, with one eye open) is the velocity on each of Pap’s offerings, specifically his slider. Each of the fastball, slider and splitter are down a tick or more since last season, but his slider is down more than three ticks since his twenty-twelve campaign. Additionally, his slider is down more than 10 ticks since 2008. He’s not missing bats (11.9% SwStr%) or inducing strikeouts (22.6% K%) like he’s been able to over the course of this career — Pap struts a career 13.5% SwStr% and 29.3 K% — so I’m not sure this is going to get any better. And as @dianagram said to me on Twitter, “I’m not sure this is what the Phillies signed up for.”

-Quick Hitters: Sergio Romo notched his 25th save of the season in a 20-pitch effort tonight after his teammates beat up the aforementioned Phillies’ closer in the top of the ninth frame. Romo is now 25-of-29 on the year in save chances. The Seattle bullpen surrendered seven earned runs tonight in relief of Felix Hernandez and ruining his fine outing. King Felix surrendered just five earned runs in all of July. Ouch.

Closer Grid:

 

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	J.J. Putz	David Hernandez
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	Scott Downs
Baltimore	Jim Johnson	Francisco Rodriguez	Tommy Hunter
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Craig Breslow	Andrew Bailey
CHI (NL)	Kevin Gregg	Pedro Strop	Blake Parker
CHI (AL)	Addison Reed	Nate Jones	Matt Lindstrom
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	J.J. Hoover	Sam LeCure	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Chris Perez	Joe Smith	Cody Allen	Vinnie Pestano
Colorado	Rex Brothers	Matt Belisle	Mitchell Boggs	Rafael Betancourt
Detroit	Joaquin Benoit	Jose Veras	Drew Smyly
Houston	Jose Cisnero	Wesley Wright	Josh Zeid
KC	Greg Holland	Aaron Crow	Kelvin Herrera
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Kevin Jepsen	Dane de la Rosa	Ryan Madson
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Ronald Belisario	Paco Rodriguez	Brian Wilson
Miami	Steve Cishek	Mike Dunn	Chad Qualls
Milwaukee	Jim Henderson	John Axford	Michael Gonzalez
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Bobby Parnell	LaTroy Hawkins	David Aardsma	Frank Francisco
NY (AL)	Mariano Rivera	David Robertson	Joba Chamberlain
Oakland	Grant Balfour	Ryan Cook	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Antonio Bastardo	Justin De Fratus	Mike Adams
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Justin Wilson	Tony Watson	Jason Grilli
St. Louis	Edward Mujica	Trevor Rosenthal	Randy Choate	Jason Motte
SD	Huston Street	Luke Gregerson	Dale Thayer
SF	Sergio Romo	Jeremy Affeldt	Santiago Casilla
Seattle	Tom Wilhelmsen	Oliver Perez	Yoervis Medina	Carter Capps
TB	Fernando Rodney	Joel Peralta	Jake McGee	Jesse Crain
Texas	Joe Nathan	Tanner Scheppers	Jason Frasor
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Steve Delabar	Brett Cecil	Sergio Santos
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Tyler Clippard	Craig Stammen	Drew Storen

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