Bullpen Report: July 12, 2014

Some quick notes from today’s bullpen action:

-The Reds ran Aroldis Chapman to the mound on each of the four previous days, leaving Jonathan Broxton to man the ninth-inning in a save situation with a one-run lead. Broxton surrendered a leadoff longball to All-World Andrew McCutchen, his second of the game, resulting in the right-hander’s fourth blown save on the season. He is now 6-of-10 in save chances and his ERA sits at 1.19, which is still far off from what his xFIP (4.30) suggests he should be posting. More rough outings could be on the horizon for the Reds’ set-up man. Broxton remains to be an emergency only reliever to own, with the exception of hold leagues, deep standard leagues and daily leagues when streaming.

-Consistent inconsistency from the arm of Addison Reed resulted in the Bullpen Report team recently shifting Arizona’s volatility status to yellow. And despite this inconsistency, Reed was summoned back to the hill in the ninth-inning again this evening by the skipper. Facing the meat of the order, Reed retired a trio of Giants — Buster Posey, Michael Morse and Brandon Belt — in order to clinch the 2-0 victory for the Diamondbacks and the righty’s 21st save of the season. Reed’s been a victim of the longball this year and his 4.30 ERA still seems to be a bit inflated thanks in part to HR/FB% that’s approaching 20% (Career 10.3% HR/FB%). The closer’s 3.35 xFIP suggests that his 4.30 ERA will make some positive regression in the days ahead. Brad Ziegler should remain on the radar for those in deeper leagues who could grab a look in the ninth should Reed’s inconsistency become too much for Gibson to tolerate.

–Joe Smith fanned two in a clean inning of work this evening to seal his 14th save of the season. Smith has now fanned two or more batters in 13 of his 43 trips to the bump and owns a 2.38 ERA (2.84 FIP). And although the Angels recently acquired Jason Grilli — who’s been pitching fairly well since moving West — it appears as if Smith could be going green here quite soon.

Quick Hits: Jenrry Mejia fanned one en route to his tenth save of the season. The Metropolitans’ closer is now 10-of-12 in save opportunities on the season with a 3.98 ERA (3.94 FIP) and owned a 11.6% K-BB% entering tonight, meh. Jake Petricka dished a clean inning of work in a non-save situation tonight of the White Sox. Despite not working with a save on the line, Petricka may emerge as the leader of the committee based on tonight’s usage and the fact that Zach Putnam pitched in the sixth and gave up an earned run. Rafael Soriano struck out the side in the bottom half of the ninth to notch his 22nd save of the season. David Robertson struck out two in the bottom of the ninth to clean up his 23rd save chance on the year.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Addison Reed	Brad Ziegler	Oliver Perez
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	Shae Simmons
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Tommy Hunter	Darren O’Day
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Andrew Miller
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Neil Ramirez	Pedro Strop
CHI (AL)	Zach Putnam	Jacob Petricka	Javy Guerra	Matt Lindstrom
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Jonathan Broxton	Sam LeCure	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	John Axford
Colorado	LaTroy Hawkins	Adam Ottavino	Rex Brothers
Detroit	Joe Nathan	Joba Chamberlain	Al Alburquerque	Joel Hanrahan
Houston	Chad Qualls	Tony Sipp	Josh Fields
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Aaron Crow
LAA	Joe Smith	Jason Grilli	Kevin Jepsen
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Chris Perez	Brian Wilson
Miami	Steve Cishek	A.J. Ramos	Mike Dunn
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Will Smith	Brandon Kintzler	Jim Henderson
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Jenrry Mejia	Jeurys Familia	Vic Black	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	David Robertson	Dellin Betances	Adam Warren
Oakland	Sean Doolittle	Luke Gregerson	Dan Otero
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Ken Giles	Jake Diekman	Mike Adams
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Ernesto Frieri
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Pat Neshek	Jason Motte
SD	Huston Street	Joaquin Benoit	Alex Torres
SF	Santiago Casilla	Jeremy Affeldt	Sergio Romo
Seattle	Fernando Rodney	Danny Farquhar	Dominic Leone
TB	Jake McGee	Grant Balfour	Joel Peralta
Texas	Joakim Soria	Jason Frasor	Neftali Feliz
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Sergio Santos	Aaron Loup	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen

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