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.
While I would selfishly prefer Boxberger to regain the role as closer, as he is on my fantasy team, what you wrote, that he “Seemingly cemented his spot,” makes no sense and is contradicted by the very facts you sight.
First, the handed-ness of players due up in the 8th and 9th combined is irrelevant because Boxberger and McGee are almost never asked to pitch two full innings; McGee has done so 3 times in the past 133 appearances while Boxberger has done so since early August 2014. Neither was going to pitch 2 innings.
McGee was asked to work the 8th because two of the first three batters were left-handed and McGee, at his best, is almost unhittable by lefties and merely good against righties. There was no chance he’d be called out for the 9th, based on past usage AND who was due up: a lefty masher and only one batter who would have batted from the left side. That there were two switch hitters was also a reason not to use McGee because righties have hit him much better than lefties have hit Boxberger, who has much less of a platoon split.
Taken all together, the only clear conclusion is that Cash considered match-ups in pitching McGee in the 8th and Boxberger in the 9th. You have presented no reason based upon use in yesterday’s game for thinking Cash has re-annointed Boxberger as a closer.
The one salient argument for Boxberger getting a leg-up is that it was his second consecutive night closing, something you did not mention, and in the first, unlike the second, match-ups alone did not explain the choice: In the 9th, the first two batters had modest and virtually off-setting career platoon splits while the third batter had almost no platoon split.
Settle down, Jonathan
The former head of the Black Panthers has risen from the grave to tell me to settle down. I gotta cut down on the caffeine.
If K Rod goes to the Jays does Smith get first crack at closer, or Jeffress since he is right hander?
Smith.
Why not Jefferies? He seems to be the one pitching the 8th inning. Smith doesn’t seem to be coming in for hold situations.
Smith hasn’t had even a hold since April
Agreed about Jeffres, I think he would get first crack at it with Smith being next in line.
rondon seems to be back in the closers spot
Dude was coming off a great game against the best offense in baseball.
He’s like most rookie pitchers, great upside that comes with a healthy dose of inconsistency. I think you pretty much have to stick with him based on upside alone.
Sorry, meant to post the above in the roto write up, not sure what happened.
In any event, I would agree with you that Rondon seems back in the Closer role for the Cubs. His hold may be tenous, but Strop hasnt sniffed the 9th since the Nationals game it seems.
Yes I agree with you both and I also consider H. Rondon the closer for now.