Bullpen Report: Friday, June 19, 2015
There were all sorts of happenings in Toronto on Friday night regarding the Jays pen. Roberto Osuna was tossed in the eighth after dotting Adam Jones. He gave up two hits and was charged with an earned run. Steve Delabar cleaned up the eighth after Osuna was tossed, lowering his ERA to 1.15 in the process. That left the ninth, and a rare save opportunity, for Brett Cecil. He gave up three singles, hit a batter and surrendered two runs, allowing the Jays to win by a single run while getting save number five. The Jays have been linked to Francisco Rodriguez and Jonathan Papelbon, and with a pair of replacements ready in the pen in Osuna and Delabar, the days of Cecil as closer are numbered.
Jake McGee came on in the eighth inning for the Rays on Friday, with two lefties due up amongst the first three hitters. He gave up a single, got a fly ball to right for an unorthodox double play, then struck out Michael Brantley to hand the ball off the Brad Boxberger for the ninth. The order didn’t seem to be matchup driven, as the six batters due up in the eighth and ninth featured three lefties and two switch-hitters, with lefty-masher Ryan Raburn due up in the ninth. Boxberger walked two and struck out one to grab his 17th save of the year, and seemingly cement his spot in the role of closer.
Jason Grilli struck out two in a perfect ninth for his 19th save. Jeurys Familia has been deemed unavailable for the rest of the weekend series with the Braves, thanks to a sore groin. Fortunately, his groin is not in his pitching arm, but there are worries that this could result in a trip to the DL. http://nypost.com/2015/06/20/mets-closer-jeurys-familia-hurts-groin-could-go-on-dl/. Next in line would be Bobby Parnell.
David Robertson was tasked with following Chris Sale’s dominant outing Friday night. He gave up two hits, walked a pair, and surrendered the tying and go-ahead runs as he blew his fourth save. Shawn Tolleson and the Rangers took advantage and left Chicago with a win. Well, they’re still in Chicago, but you know what I mean. Tolleson walked one in his scoreless inning to earn his tenth save.
Of Note: Drew Storen kept rolling as he struck out two and grabbed his 20th save. Steve Cishek saw the seventh inning in Cincinnati, coming in trailing by one with one out and a runner on second. He gave up a pair of singles, allowing the inherited runner to score, and then ending the inning with a double play. Daniel Hudson earned his sixth hold for Arizona, and Brad Ziegler grabbed his tenth save. Mark Lowe pitched the eighth for the Mariners to get the ball to Carson Smith for his fourth save. They combined to strike out three over their two perfect innings. Santiago Casilla had to come on the strike out one Dodger to earn his 19th save.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
Darren contributes to RotoGraphs when he isn’t watching the Braves or shoveling snow. Follow him on Twitter @shinesie.
would you drop Rondon for Boxberger? or just try to own them both? Don’t really have many droppable players with Matz and Chavez my lesser starters and Casilla and Axford are my other closers.
Of those, drop Axford, then Rondon. Saves or no saves, Box will pitch to a much lower ERA and WHIP than the other 2.