Bullpen Report: August 13, 2012

• Derek Lowe picked up the traditional four inning save tonight for the Yankees. Yes, you read that correctly — four-inning save. In his debut for the Yankees, Lowe came on in relief of David Phelps in the sixth and dished four scoreless innings of two-hit ball while fanning four. For those youngsters out there, this was not Derek Lowe’s first career save. In fact, this was Lowe’s 86th career save and first regular season save since 2001 — almost 11 years to the day. It’s unlikely that Lowe will earn many more saves this year, but he could turn into an interesting rotation option for the Bronx Bombers should they need an extra arm.

• Dale Thayer notched his sixth save of the season tonight and first since Huston Street hit the disabled list on Saturday with a strained quad. Thayer faced the minimum and needed just 10 pitches to seal the deal. The right-hander is now 6-for-8 in save chances this season while posting a 3.51 ERA and a 3.33 K/BB. For those chasing saves, I’d hustle to the wire and grab Thayer, who is owned in just nine percent of Yahoo! leagues.

• For as much the Bullpen Report guys write about Andrew Bailey, you would think the guy has walked on water — or at least, logged a save this season, right? While I have no proof that Bailey can or can not walk on water, I know for sure that he has yet to close out a single game in 2012. Anyway, here is the last Andrew Bailey update you will get while the Red Sox reliever is still officially on the disabled list: After six successful rehab appearances, the Red Sox appear ready to “activate the right-hander from the disabled list on Tuesday in Baltimore.” There you have it. Bailey is a must add for those with shares of Alfredo Aceves, or those who are hoarding saves in general. The Bullpen Report legend is available in 55 percent of Yahoo! leagues

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A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Aroldis Chapman (CIN) vs. NYM

Chapman last saw action on Sunday, when he converted his 28th save on the year. The Cuban flamethrower is 28-for-32 in save chances this season and has saved 20 consecutive games since June 24th. With Mat Latos facing off against the Mets’ version of Chris Young tomorrow in Cincinnati, Chapman could get another opportunity to strengthen his CY Young candidacy.

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	Kevin Jepsen	LaTroy Hawkins	Jordan Walden
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Brandon League	Javy Guerra
Miami	Steve Cishek	Heath Bell	Mike Dunn
Milwaukee	Jim Henderson	John Axford	Kameron Loe
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Alex Burnett	Matt Capps
NY (NL)	Frank Francisco	Bobby Parnell	Jon Rauch
NY (AL)	Rafael Soriano	David Robertson	Boone Logan
Oakland	Grant Balfour	Ryan Cook	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Antonio Bastardo	Josh Lindblom
Pittsburgh	Joel Hanrahan	Jason Grilli	Juan Cruz
St. Louis	Jason Motte	Mitchell Boggs	Edward Mujica
SD	Luke Gregerson	Dale Thayer	Brad Brach	Huston Street
SF	Sergio Romo	Jeremy Affeldt	Santiago Casilla
Seattle	Tom Wilhelmsen	Shawn Kelley	Stephen Pryor
Tampa Bay	Fernando Rodney	Kyle Farnsworth	Jake McGee
Texas	Joe Nathan	Mike Adams	Alexei Ogando
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.]