Bullpen Report: August 29, 2014
Reds at Pirates: The Josh Harrison show included a triple in the bottom of the 8th that gave the Pirates the lead for a Mark Melancon save (#25).
The Reds didn’t need Aroldis Chapman on this day after Jonathan Broxton blew the hold in the 8th, but check out this tweet from our Jeff Zimmerman:
Another Random Leaderboard: What happens when a hitter swings at a pitcher’s certain pitch https://t.co/QtJ1lvEdvz …..
— Jeff Zimmerman (@jeffwzimmerman) August 29, 2014
Open up the file, copy and paste it all into excel and sort by the last column, swingingstrikes. Using a 10-pitch qualifier, Aroldis Chapman owns the #1 whiff rate (his Changeup although he doesn’t use the pitch often and recently nixed it) at 94+%. He also owns the #14 whiff rate (his devastating Slider) at 71+%. His other coded pitches including the 101 MPH Fastball also induces a 50+% whiff rate. He still has a 51.8% overall K-rate which would one-up Craig Kimbrel’s 2012 MLB record of 50.2%.
Rockies at Diamondbacks: Addison Reed notched save #31 and is having a great season from a command perspective. Relative to last year, his K-rate jumped almost 4% backed up by the best contact and swinging-strike rate of his career. He also dropped his BB-rate by over 2%. The bad luck/park effect deflating his surface stats is a 14.7% HR/FB ratio (up 8% although a huge IFFB-rate kept the HR/FB ratio down last year). A Top 40 (for RP) 5.00 K/BB ratio is keeping him very valuable for fantasy leagues and saves, but the ugly Balls In Play breakdown (.57 GB/FB ratio) will keep the ERA inflated. I have no issues keeping him as a 3 category (SV, K, WHIP) closer next year with the potential to take a step forward at only 26.
Concerns-conschmerns:
Phillies at Mets: Jenrry Mejia earns save #20 striking out the side in the 9th. It’s the type of game I hope to see a lot of next year as a Mets fan: 7IP from the starter (let’s say Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndergaard hopefully); a clean inning out of Jeurys Familia as the set-up man and Jenrry Mejia closing the door. He’s the 2nd youngest Mets pitcher to 20 saves still under 25 years of age. Clearly more successful as a reliever and under contract until 2019, Mets found their closer of the future. This was his 3rd straight scoreless appearance (4K:0BB and 1 H), but he’s only pitched 3 of the last 7 days due to physical ailments: back tightness and a calf issue. Hopefully he remains healthy until the offseason when he will under go hernia surgery. I’ll change the Mets from red to yellow within the grid below because it’s clear that it’s Mejia’s job. It’s yellow vs. green because of his aches and pains.
Quick Hits:
Cubs at Cardinals: The R2MM (Regression to the Means Monster) hit Pat Neshek today like a ton of bricks: Javier Baez doubled in 2 and then Jorge Soler drove himself and Baez in on one swing. I love all the random Cubbie tweets we see: you know – something along the lines of “OMG” and “Bryant-Baez-Soler-Russell-Alcantara-Rizzo-Castro” with a “Vogelbach” and/or “Almora” sometimes thrown in. Enjoy Cubbie fans. Enjoy. Seriously, I’m a disgruntled Mets fan living in Minnesota…enjoy.
Marlins at Braves: Craig Kimbrel earned save #40 tying him with Greg Holland for the Major League lead. The only thing you can whine about is that it’s his 2nd appearance in a row without a strikeout. He threw 10 pitches: 6 for strikes. Only 3 were swung at (no whiffs induced).
Yankees at Blue Jays: David Robertson racks up save #35 and 1 SO in 1.1 perfect innings. Oh look, a bar of soap.
Ah well…No Brad Boxberger or Ken Giles appearances today.
Ensure that you check out Jeff’s MASH reports for the status of Sean Doolittle and others.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
Daniel Schwartz contributes for RotoGraphs when he's not selling industry leading thermal packaging. You can follow him on twitter @RotoBanter
Would you keep holding Neshek or is this the end of the line?
Are you in a holds league… That’s probably the only reason I’m keeping him ROS