Bullpen Report: August 8, 2013

It’s been a pretty slow day in bullpen country, so here is what I was able to scrape together for tonight:

In today’s “Scheming For Relief” column that I use to rant about middle relievers for holds leagues, LaTroy Hawkins earned a slot in the third tier based on his past thirty days of performance. In the past thirty day prior to this evening’s outing, Hawkins owned a 2.45 ERA, 1.00 WHIP with seven holds and one save in 12 trips to the bump. He seemed like a solid option to continue gathering holds despite the awful strikeout rate (9.3% K%) over the last month. But with Bobby Parnell on the disabled list, the Mets signaled for the gritty veteran to do away with the Rockies in the top half of the ninth-inning with another save chance on the line. Hawkins needed just 11 pitches to induce a fly out and two ground outs to earn his second save in four chances this season. If you’re chasing saves to finish out the season, you may as well add “old man river” to your squad to see if you can scrape together a few more.

A reader hit me up on Twitter today suggesting that I move Luke Hochevar into a higher tier on my middle reliever rankings based on the superb season he’s put together. I initially hesitated due to the fact that he’s notched just two holds in the past thirty days despite posting a 0.00 ERA and a 0.77 WHIP with a 21.1% K% over that same time frame. Well, just for that, and despite giving up an RBI single to Stephen Drew, Hochevar picked up the fancy four-out save tonight in a 5-1 Royals victory over the Red Sox. The save was Hochevar’s second successful save conversion in four opportunities this season. I’m not sure many more chances will come his way from here on out, but if you’re into streaming relievers to try to gather some holds, strikeouts or improve your ratios, he’s not a bad option to consider.

Jason Grilli will start playing catch this weekend with the hope of returning to the Pirates roster by the end of the month, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The Pirates closer hit the disabled list at the end of July with what Dr. James Andrews called a strained flexor tendon that could keep the right-hander out for an estimated four-to-eight weeks. At this point, it appears as if Grilli’s rest and rehabilitation will take him closer to the eight week mark if all goes well between now and the end of August. Prior to hitting the disabled list, Grilli earned 30 saves in 31 opportunities while posting career bests in ERA (2.34, 1.63 FIP), WHIP (0.92), K% (39.3) and batting average against (.185). Mark Melancon, who’s been equally as brilliant as Grilli this season, will continue to hold down the ninth frame until further notice. There is no reason Melancon should still available in 30% of Yahoo! leagues.

Closer Grid:

 

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	J.J. Putz	David Hernandez
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	Scott Downs
Baltimore	Jim Johnson	Francisco Rodriguez	Tommy Hunter
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	Sam LeCure	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Chris Perez	Joe Smith	Cody Allen	Vinnie Pestano
Colorado	Rex Brothers	Matt Belisle	Mitchell Boggs	Rafael Betancourt
Detroit	Joaquin Benoit	Jose Veras	Drew Smyly
Houston	Josh Fields	Wesley Wright	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	Ronald Belisario	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	Craig Stammen	Drew Storen

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