Bullpen Report: Friday, June 26, 2015
Zach Britton kept humming right along for the Orioles, notching his 22nd save. He continues to lead qualified relievers with a 71.6% GB%. He has an excellent 23.2% K%-BB% and a 14.3% whiff rate, both numbers putting him in the top 25 of relievers. He throws his 95 mph sinker over 90% of the time, no reliever throws his fastball more. As a result of the sinker usage, he hasn’t induced a single pop up this year. He’s having one of the best seasons of any reliever. His 1.99 ERA is right in line with his 1.91 FIP.
The Braves bullpen was asked to carry the load from the fifth inning on in Pittsburgh after Williams Perez had to come out after taking a comebacker off the ankle. Luis Avilan, Nick Masset and Jim Johnson got the Braves through the ninth with 4.3 scoreless innings. Jason Grilli gave up the game-winning hit in the bottom of the tenth. For the Pirates, Jared Hughes pitched two strong innings, setting down six Braves on an economical 12 pitches, inducing five groundouts. Mark Melancon got the win, pitching a scoreless tenth, striking out one. He keeps chugging along with his 12.4% K%-BB%, which is well below the 22.2% and 21.7% he put up the past couple of seasons. His BB% has remained pretty much the same, up a touch from last year at 4.4% in 2015, but the K% has plummeted from the 25.1% and 25.6% that he put up last year. As his velocity has returned, so has his K% as he’s back up to 24.4% in June. After an early-season scare, he’s back to the Melancon of the past couple seasons.
Bruce Rondon touched triple digits again for the Tigers, and got the tap in the eighth inning of a tied game in Chicago. He struck out one in a perfect inning, and could be knocking on the door of a setup role if he keeps it up. Blaine Hardy and Joba Chamberlain were both coming off back-to-back outings, so for the Tigers to be able to turn to Rondon in that spot is a nice luxury to have. Joakim Soria grabbed his 17th save and gave up two hits, striking out one. Jake Petricka and Zack Duke each gave up solo homers in the seventh and eighth respectively, frittering away the lead and putting the White Sox in a hole that they couldn’t crawl out of.
With a tied game at home, Kevin Cash turned to Kevin Jepsen in the seventh, and followed that up with Jake McGee and Brad Boxberger. They each pitched a scoreless inning, striking out four Red Sox in total. Three Rays combined to give up a run in the top of the tenth, allowing Koji Uehara to slam the door, striking out two in a perfect inning, picking up his fifteenth save. He threw ten pitches, nine of them for strikes, and split them equally between the splitter and the four-seamer. He induced seven swings and got five whiffs. He sat third amongst qualified relievers coming into Friday’s action with a 17.6% SwSt%, trailing only Aroldis Chapman, and, uh, Zach Putnam?
What in blazes? Fernando Rodney earned his 15th save for the Mariners on Friday, striking out two and giving up a lone hit. Carson Smith and Charlie Furbush split the eighth inning. Lloyd McClendon mentioned a week ago that he wouldn’t hesitate to let Rodney close on nights when Smith was unavailable, but he was certainly available tonight. He hadn’t pitched since last Saturday. For now, I would assume that they are going to both be getting save opportunities for the time being, unless McClendon clears things up over the weekend and says he’s going with Rodney. This was Rodney’s sixth scoreless outing in a row.
Pedro Strop was the first of the Cubs closer grid trio to see action in St. Louis on Friday night. He gave up a pinch hit home run to Greg Garcia in the eighth, allowing the Cards to tie the game. He was left in to hit a batter, walk another and get a fly out. Jason Motte followed him to face one batter, before giving way to James Russell to end the inning. Hector Rondon struck out two in a perfect ninth, and it was his second day in a row on the mound. He should be available Saturday as he’s only thrown 20 pitches across the two days. For the Cards, Trevor Rosenthal was another day removed from the biceps tightness he suffered from last week, and he was perfect for an inning, striking out one.
The Astros sent Chad Qualls to the DL with a pinched nerve in his neck. Pat Neshek will move up and it appears that Will Harris is tabbed for that next spot in line, but he came in with a lead in the seventh and promptly gave up a three-run bomb to Chris Young, allowing both his inherited runners to come across and put the Yankees in front. I would say that Josh Fields is better suited to that role than Harris is, and it’s for very similar reasons that I thought Roberto Osuna would be a better fit to close in Toronto than Steve Delabar. Harris is sporting a Delabar-esque .108 BABIP and 100% LOB% (going into action Friday). He has a nice 21.6% K%-BB%, but his 3.05 FIP and 7.9% SwSt% leave something to be desired. Fields, on the other hand, has an outstanding 30.6% K%-BB%, a 1.77 FIP and a 13.6% SwSt%. His .250 BABIP and 80.7% LOB% aren’t outliers either. I’m putting Fields into that spot on the grid, and hoping that the Astros follow suit. After Harris failed on Friday, it could be Fields nailing down the seventh Saturday.
Of Note: Recent Max Scherzer starts have meant a night off for the Nationals bullpen. Only Drew Storen saw action out of the pen on Friday, giving up two hits and earning his 22nd save. Jeurys Familia averaged 98.7 mph on Friday and induced three groundouts to save his 21st of the year. Jenrry Mejia continues his rehab assignment and is eligible to return from his suspension soon. No way is Familia giving up the role that he’s earned, unless he starts to falter, and other than a tight groin last weekend, he’s showing no signs of slippage. Greg Holland pitched two thirds of an inning and struck out one for his 15th save. Pedro Baez returned from injury and pitched in a Dodger uniform for the first time since May 13. He touched 99.7 and induced four whiffs on his 14 pitches, striking out the side in a perfect ninth. Dellin Betances earned his fifth save, striking out two in 1.3 innings. Chasen Shreve struck out the side in a perfect seventh for his fourth hold. Andrew Miller played catch for the second day in a row on Thursday and felt fine. This is way better news than if he felt discomfort and had to stop. There is no timetable for his return, but it does sound promising. Craig Kimbrel notched save 19 for the Padres. Rafael Betancourt made his triumphant return from the DL, whiffing two Giants in his perfect seventh inning, garnering his seventh hold.
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.
McClendon is a dope, Smith is the better pitcher and has proven that he can get the quality save. Why mess around with what little opportunity his bullpen has?
This is why I don’t buy closers on bad teams.
They used their best pitcher in the toughest situation and won. Sorry he wasn’t more concerned about your fantasy team.
Smith is better than Rodney, get a clue
Solid comprehension.
I can understand it from a real life strategy, but it does suck for fantasy owners.
McClendon is a terrible manager though, how he got another job after his Pirates run is beyond me. I guess it helps him that Jack Z. has shown himself to be a thoroughly incompetent GM so that helps his cause.
Well the Mariners were not supposed to be bad when the season started. I think a lot of people had them being a very good team coming out of spring. Unless you traded for Rodney during season play? Anyone that drafted Rodney made a wise choice. They were supposed to win 90+ games. Seemed like a slam dunk that Rodney would get 40+ saves.