Bullpen Report: August 26, 2013

• Casey Janssen nailed down his 24th save tonight against the Yankees. Sergio Santos was only brought in for one out but he did the job, striking out Alex Rodriguez for his third hold of the year. Janssen’s job isn’t in danger but Santos is pitching pretty well since coming back from injury (3.10 SIERA) and should be first in line if anything were to happen to Janssen. In the meantime, holds or saves+ holds leagues should take note as Santos remains a solid option in that category, particularly in any AL-Only leagues.

• It wasn’t pretty but Grant Balfour got through the ninth tonight for his 33rd save of the season. Balfour has upped his strikeout rate this season and the results are certainly paying off. Balfour’s not as good as his 1.80 ERA but his current 2.79 SIERA would be the second best mark of his career. With Oakland gunning for the playoffs, Balfour should continue to rack up saves in fantasy while striking out a a batter an inning.

• Edward Mujica has been suffering some shoulder recently, but he’s still racking up the saves, recording his 35th save of the year this evening. Mujica’s solid peripherals (2.95 SIERA) are more the product of his excellent control (1.4% BB%) than the strikeouts you would except from a top tier closer, but with 35 saves and a 0.80 WHIP, Mujica’s been one of the league’s best this year. Considering the fact that Mujica was likely acquired off of waivers in your league, he ranks as one of fantasy baseball’s best pickups this season.  Fantasy owners should already own Trevor Rosenthal for strikeouts and ratios, but owners should continue to keep a keen eye on him so long as Mujica’s shoulder is a talking point.

• Although Colin appropriately warned you to avoid the Astros bullpen yesterday, I relay to you that Josh Zeid came out for the save against the White Sox. Zeid was relieved by the left-handed Kevin Chapman with two-out and two-on to retire Adam Dunn, who was subsequently walked. Jordan Lyles finally came on and got the final out for the first save of his career. Lyles hasn’t been too successful in the rotation in his career but he’s more likely to return there than to be in the mix for saves in Houston. If Zeid pitched a clean inning, I’d have move the order below, but as of now, the Astros remains a mess. Approach with caution.

Closer Grid:

 

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Heath Bell	Eury de la Rosa	J.J. Putz
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	Scott Downs
Baltimore	Jim Johnson	Tommy Hunter	Francisco Rodriguez
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	Jonathan Broxton	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Chris Perez	Joe Smith	Cody Allen	Vinnie Pestano
Colorado	Rex Brothers	Matt Belisle	Wilton Lopez	Rafael Betancourt
Detroit	Joaquin Benoit	Jose Veras	Drew Smyly
Houston	Chia-Jen Lo	Josh Fields	Josh Zeid	Jose Cisnero
KC	Greg Holland	Aaron Crow	Kelvin Herrera
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Dane de la Rosa	Kevin Jepsen	Robert Coello
LAD	Kenley Jansen	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)	LaTroy Hawkins	David Aardsma	Scott Rice	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	Mariano Rivera	David Robertson	Joba Chamberlain
Oakland	Grant Balfour	Ryan Cook	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Justin De Fratus	Jake Diekman	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	Danny Farquhar	Yoervis Medina	Oliver Perez	Tom Wilhelmsen
TB	Fernando Rodney	Joel Peralta	Jake McGee	Jesse Crain
Texas	Joe Nathan	Tanner Scheppers	Jason Frasor
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Sergio Santos	Brett Cecil	Steve Delabar
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen

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