Bullpen Report: July 14, 2017
We may have just taken a four-day break from games that count, but closer drama did not take a vacation. The trade market heated up over the All-Star break, and while no closers were dealt, there were plenty of reports and rumors regarding closer trades.
None was more attention-grabbing than Jon Heyman’s report for FanRag Sports that the Dodgers called the Orioles to check on Zach Britton‘s availability. While Heyman noted that the Orioles have not yet made Britton available, the possibility that he could head out of Baltimore to be Kenley Jansen’s set-up man is exciting from a fan’s perspective, but it’s a fantasy nightmare.
Though it seems unlikely, one might wonder if Britton has already saved his last game as an Oriole. Buck Showalter brought him in for another non-save opportunity on Friday night, facing the Cubs with an 8-6 deficit in the eight inning. Britton didn’t have much of a problem containing the Cubs, as he allowed just an Ian Happ single, and he erased Happ with a pickoff throw that ultimately resulted in a failed stolen base attempt.
Unless the Orioles deal Britton soon, it probably won’t be long before he is saving games again. Brad Brach was actually needed in this game, as Mark Trumbo tied the contest with a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth. However, Brach gave up a solo shot to Addison Russell in the top of the ninth, and that proved to be the decisive run. Heading into the break, Brach had been extremely effective, nailing down seven saves in eight opportunities with an 0.98 ERA over his prior 18 appearances. We still have to figure Brach will return to a setup role, at least temporarily, only because Britton is starting to look like his old self again.
A.J. Ramos has also been featured in trade rumors, and it seems like a foregone conclusion that he will be on the move. He’s not doing much for his trade value of late, though, as he has now allowed at least one run in each of his last three appearances. His latest outing was the most damaging of the three, as he allowed a two-out single to Joc Pederson and a walk to Yasmani Grandal, setting up Yasiel Puig’s three-run homer. The result was a 6-4 Marlins loss and Ramos’ second blown save of the season.
Aroldis Chapman also blew a save on Friday, and he did so in spectacular fashion, failing to get a single out and walking Andrew Benintendi for the go-ahead run. (To be fair, the tying run scored on a hard Xander Bogaerts chopper misplayed by Ronald Torreyes.) This was the fourth time in his last eight appearances that Chapman had allowed a run or more, and for some owners that may sound the panic alarm.
While Chapman was ultimately done in by a walk in this most recent appearance, control had not been an issue for him since he returned from the DL on June 18. Over eight innings pitched between his activation and the All-Star break, Chapman walked one batter and threw 70 percent of his pitches for strikes. This is not to say, though, that we are entirely without cause for concern. Heading into the break, Chapman had the highest contact rate of his career, and his 72.4 percent mark topped his previous high by 4.7 percentage points. His season-to-date BABIP stands at .440, which is hard to completely write off given that he has the highest line drive rate of his career and the lowest soft contact rate since his first season with the Reds back in 2010.
Chapman is still dialing up triple digits, and there haven’t been major changes in the amount of movement he is getting on his fastball, so it is too early to panic.
We also shouldn’t let Chapman’s poor outing get in the way of appreciating two perfect innings of middle relief by Chad Green. He struck out each of the last five batters he faced, giving Green 47 strikeouts over 35 innings since he made his 2017 Yankees debut on May 9. Over that period, Green has more strikeouts than Julio Teheran, and he sports a 1.80 ERA and an 0.69 WHIP. He’s an intriguing relief option for owners who need cheap strikeouts and ratios, though one has to wonder how long he can maintain a low HR/9 ratio (0.77) when he has a 29.4 percent ground ball rate.
A little over a week ago in this space, I made the observation that Alex Claudio had the lowest FIP, xFIP and SIERA of the four relievers in the Rangers’ closer mix. On Friday, Claudio got his first save chance since Jeff Banister decided to go with a closer committee. It’s fair to say it went well. He needed only seven pitches to retire Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez and Mike Moustakas, quickly cementing the Rangers’ 5-3 win over the Royals.
Jose Leclerc had been warming up prior to bottom of the ninth and continued to warm up after Claudio was summoned. This suggests that Banister may have been looking to use a platoon approach, bringing Leclerc in if he did not retire Hosmer or Moustakas. Even though Claudio aced this test, it would make sense for Banister to use that approach, as the lefty sinkerballer has allowed right-handed batters to hit .287 against him this season.
In short, despite Claudio’s strong showing, the Rangers’ closer situation still appears far from settled.
The same may be true for the Cardinals. Just as it seemed that Seung Hwan Oh had wrested back the closer’s role, he took the loss against the Pirates on Friday night. Oh managed to get only one out in the bottom of the ninth, and the game ended on Josh Bell’s three-run homer.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
Al Melchior has been writing about Fantasy baseball and sim games since 2000, and his work has appeared at CBSSports.com, BaseballHQ, Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster and FanRagSports. He has also participated in Tout Wars' mixed auction league since 2013. You can follow Al on Twitter @almelchiorbb and find more of his work at almelchior.com.
Sam Dyson had a pretty ugly save. Let a run score and hit a batter to load the bases before getting the final out.
So typical Sam Dyson?
Typical Sam Dyson this season, BUT I think it’s worth noting not typical Dyson since he joined the Giants. The numbers are actually pretty good since then:
http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&lg=all&qual=0&type=c,4,5,11,114,7,8,13,-1,36,120,37,121,38,40,43,44,48,51,-1,6,45,62,122,42,-1,59&season=2017&month=0&season1=2017&ind=0&team=30&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=22,a
23.5 K%, 7.8 BB%, 65.7 GB%, 2.92 ERA/2.17 FIP/3.04 xFIP/3.00 SIERA/1.14 WHIP