Bullpen Report: August 21, 2014

Just a couple of notes on this rather sluggish Thursday.

Kevin Quackenbush notched his first career save Wednesday evening in Chavez Ravine as the Friars clipped the Dodgers, 4-1. The Padres’ rookie reliever tossed a clean ninth-inning on 15 pitches (12 strikes), surrendering just one hit to seal the deal for the away squad. News out of San Diego today suggests that Quackenbush could see more save chances this season if current closer Joaquin Benoit’s shoulder continues to act up. And more importantly, Quackenbush could end up being the closer next season should the Padres move him “before the end of this month or in the offseason.” Moving the 37-year-old Benoit and anointing the 25-year-old righty the ninth-inning man would get the Padres off the hook for the former’s $8M salary next season, which seems like a realistic possibility for Friars. Quackenbush is 2-2 with a save and seven holds this season. He owns a 2.29 ERA (2.65 FIP) with a 15.6% K-BB% in 42 trips to the bump.

The Angels gave Jason Grilli the ball in the ninth frame tonight in a save situation with Huston Street getting the night off. The former closer fired 11 pitches (10 strikes) and fanned one while facing the minimum on his way to collecting the first save of his Halos career. The almost-38-year-old reliever now has 50 career saves under his belt and makes for valuable piece to this Angels’ bullpen as we head down the homestretch. Between the Bucs and the Angels, Grilli is 1-3 with 12 saves, eight holds and a 3.43 ERA (3.57 FIP).

Nice to see some conversation regarding the Rays’ bullpen outside of the Bullpen Report this week. Notably, our own Mike Petriello published quite a few words yesterday on Brad Boxberger’s arrival, in reverse. Go ahead and read it, we’ll wait right here for you to come back. Okay, well looks like Boxberger should be a fine candidate to set-up for Jake McGee the rest of the way and probably even next season. And he did so again tonight, allowing just one hit and fanning two in a clean inning of work to keep the Rays up one heading into the final frame. Jake McGee took to the hill in the ninth in the save situation to finish off the Tigers on 16 pitches for his 14th save of the year.

Both Quackenbush and Boxberger — two of the most unique names I’ve seen in my time here at the Bullpen Report — deserve a look in deeper leagues, even for steady contributions acorss the traditional categories.

Quick Hits: Hector Rondon notched his 18th save in 22 opportunities for the Cubbies in a 19-pitch effort against the Giants. Rondon fanned one, but yielded two hits before closing out San Francisco in the visitor’s half of the ninth. Glen Perkins needed just 11 pitches to induce a fly out, ground out and strike out to collect his 32nd save of the ‘14 campaign. Santiago Casilla picked up his 11th save of the season with a 15-pitch, two-strikeout effort against the Cubs. As I was about the press publish, Kenley Jansen cleaned up his 36th save of the season in a 2-1 Dodgers victory over the Padres. J.J. Hoover appeared in games on both Tuesday and Wednesday for the Reds, but was optioned to Louisville of the International League today.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Addison Reed	Brad Ziegler	Oliver Perez
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	David Carpenter	Shae Simmons
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Tommy Hunter	Andrew Miller
Boston	Koji Uehara	Edward Mujica	Junichi Tazawa
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Neil Ramirez	Kyuji Fujikawa
CHI (AL)	Jacob Petricka	Zach Putnam	Matt Lindstom
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Jonathan Broxton	Sam LeCure	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Scott Atchison
Colorado	LaTroy Hawkins	Adam Ottavino	Rex Brothers
Detroit	Joe Nathan	Joba Chamberlain	Al Alburquerque	Joakim Soria
Houston	Chad Qualls	Tony Sipp	Josh Fields
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Jason Frasor
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Jason Grilli
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Brian Wilson	Brandon League
Miami	Steve Cishek	Bryan Morris	A.J. Ramos
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Will Smith	Brandon Kintzler	Jim Henderson
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Jenrry Mejia	Jeurys Familia	Vic Black	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	David Robertson	Dellin Betances	Adam Warren
Oakland	Sean Doolittle	Luke Gregerson	Dan Otero
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Ken Giles	Jake Diekman	Mike Adams
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Jared Hughes
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Pat Neshek	Seth Maness	Jason Motte
SD	Joaquin Benoit	Kevin Quackenbush	Dale Thayer
SF	Santiago Casilla	Jeremy Affeldt	Sergio Romo
Seattle	Fernando Rodney	Danny Farquhar	Dominic Leone
TB	Jake McGee	Brad Boxberger	Grant Balfour
Texas	Neftali Feliz	Neal Cotts	Shawn Tolleson
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Aaron Loup	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen

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