Bullpen Report: August 15, 2013
The Cuban Missile, Aroldis Chapman, surrendered one hit and whiffed two enroute to a 2-1 Reds victory over the Brewers on Thursday evening. Chapman is now 30-of-34 on the season with a 2.74 ERA (1.03 WHIP) and a 43% K%. He “somewhat” set the bar pretty high for himself back in 2012, so when I want to discuss how his K% is “down” to 43% from just over 44% last season or his BB% is up to 10.7% from 8.3% in ‘12 I feel like I’m just nitpicking. But the aforementioned is true and so is the fact that the velo on his slider is down a tick and his LD% is up to 25%. Ya whatever, he’s still recorded 30 saves for the second consecutive season and will likely eclipse the 100 strikeout mark again as well. He’s been a stud and will continue to be a stud for the foreseeable future, I’m 99% sure you didn’t need me to tell you that.
No Joaquin Benoit love last night?! Oh-Em-Gee. Well, don’t worry I have you covered tonight. Benoit needed just three outs to record his 16th save of the year in a 3-2 Tigers win against the Royals in Detroit. Benoit yielded a free pass, but two groundouts and a lineout on 14 pitches was good enough to seal the deal for the Tigers’ closer. Alright, that’s enough about Joaquin, he’s just keeping it green.
It took Rafael Soriano just 22 pitches tonight to allow three earned runs on two hits and a walk for his fifth blown save of the season. Thanks to a three-run jack off the bat of Hector Sanchez, Soriano’s ERA spiked to 3.40 on the season, the highest it’s been since April 27th (3.60). But despite the fact that Soriano has allowed four earned runs in the past two nights and fans seem to be looking for the skip to yank him from ninth-inning duties, his job appears to be safe for the time being. The beneficiary of Soriano’s blow up, Sergio Romo, faced the minimum and needed just ten tosses from the hill to notch his 29th save of the year.
Quick Hitters: Casey Janssen (22) and Gonzalez German (1) each earned saves this evening. Twelve middle relievers earned holds tonight, including but not limited to Randy Choate, Fernando Abad and Seth Maness. Over the past week, Matt Belisle and Tim Collins have each earned a league-best three holds. Do you stream relievers? If so, Fernando Abad could be a save candidate on Friday with both Rafael Soriano and Tyler Clippard appearing in a few consecutive games.
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.
David Hernandez was sent down Saturday.
This is a true story.
Actually had this change made last week, but apparently, I grabbed the wrong code tonight.
It’s fixed now, thanks for the heads-up.