Bullpen Report: August 22, 2014

As previously noted, we’ll be posting some of the weekend Bullpen Reports the morning after. With that said, here’s a few things that stuck out to me from Friday’s action:

Koji Uehara served up five earned runs on five hits and a walk last night to the Seattle Mariners in the top of the ninth. The blowup earned Uehara his third blown save of the year in 29 chances and he’s now yielded seven earned runs in his last three outings. Velocity may be down a hair at the moment, but I’m not sure it’s something that we could blame on his recent misfortune. The 39-year-old right-hander now owns a 2.28 ERA (2.66 FIP) with a 0.89 WHIP and a 28.5% K-BB% during his 2014 campaign.

During the same game, it was Fernando Rodney who took advantage of Koji Uehara’s unfortunate outing. After Rodney’s teammates put up a five-spot in the top half, Rodney took the bump in the home half of the ninth frame and retired the Red Sox on 14 pitches (eight strikes). Before shooting the infamous arrow, Rodney sandwiched a walk between a couple of fly outs and a ground out to seal the deal. I don’t have any proof to back this up, but I feel like Fernando Rodney always catches a bad reputation — or some hate, if you will — for his performance. The guy is 37-of-40 in save opportunities with a 2.24 ERA (2.44 FIP) and a 17.9% K-BB%. That’s pretty dang good. Maybe it’s just the way he wears his hat, or the way he carries himself in general, that cause people to think he not as good as he actually is? Or maybe it’s just me — which is probably the case. At any rate, Fernando Rodney was the 22nd closer off the board, with an ADP of ~188 in ESPN fantasy baseball drafts heading into the 2014 season. Decent return on investment.

Hector Rondon retired the Orioles in order last evening to notch his 20th save of the season. Rondon needed just eight pitches — seven fastballs and a slider — to retire Nelson Cruz, Chris Davis and J.J.Hardy to clinch the 4-1 victory for Cubbies. The Cubs’ closer is now 20-of-24 in save chances this season with a 3.04 ERA (2.06 FIP) and a 19.1% K-BB%.

Joakim Soria, on the disabled list due to a left oblique strain, is scheduled to throw a bullpen today in between the Twins and Tigers double header. Soria has been on the shelf since August 10th, but if all goes well with today’s session, he could return when eligible on August 25th.

Quick Hitters: Craig Kimbrel (38) and Jonathan Papelbon (31) each notched saves on Friday evening. Sean Doolittle picked up his 19th save of the season for the Athletics despite surrendering a free pass and two hits. The A’s ninth-inning man did strike out the two batters he faced and has a 36.5% K-BB% in 53 trips to the bump. Cody Allen gave up four earned on two walks and a hit to take his third loss of the season at home against the Astros last evening.

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.]