Bullpen Report: July 2, 2015

Glen Perkins notched his 26th save of the year in a 2-0 Twins victory over the Royals in Kansas City today. The Twins’ ninth-inning man needed just 11 pitches to fan one and induce a pair of groundouts to retire the Royals in the home half of the ninth. Perkins remains a perfect 26-for-26 in save opportunities with a 1.35 ERA (2.51 FIP). He’s inducing swinging strikes at an 11.1% clip — the lowest since since his 7.9% SwStr% during 2010, but still better than his career 9.3% mark — which explains the dip in strikeouts for Perkins in ‘15. But he’s walking fewer batters than he has in the past (3.9% BB%) so I guess it’s not all that bad. Velocity looks good on the fastball, but the slider seems to have lost another tick, so let’s keep an eye on that going forward.

Speaking of perfect, Francisco Rodriguez picked up his 18th save in as many chances on the year today for the Brewers in an extra-inning effort. KRod needed 14 pitches to induce a trio of groundouts and secure the win over the Phillies. Oh. And Rodriguez’s last blown save? August 27, 2014 against the Padres. Not bad. You know what else isn’t bad? The (only) 33-year-old owns 366 career saves — good enough for ninth-best all-time and just one behind Jeff Reardon’s 367 who sits in eighth place and just 11 behind the active leader, Joe Nathan.

Craig Kimbrel locked down his 20th save of the year in a 14-pitch effort for the Friars today in St. Louis. Kimbrel surrendered a leadoff single to Kolten Wong, but induced a fly ball out and a couple of lineouts — including one off the bat of former teammate Jason Heyward — to secure the win for Atlanta in extra innings. Kimbrel is now 20-of-21 in save chances and owns a 3.30 ERA (2.84 FIP) in 30 innings on the hill for San Diego. And while Kimbrel may not reach the save totals he did during the ‘11, ‘13 and ‘14 seasons in Atlanta, there’s still a decent chance he’ll eclipse the 40-save plateau for the fifth consecutive year. Not that bad for a 27-year-old.

Quick Hits: Cody Allen earned his 15th save of the year in an extra-inning victory for the Indians. And he did so in style, fanning each of the three batters he faced — two of which who went down swinging. Allen’s FIP now sits at 1.73 on the year, indicating he’s been a better pitcher than his 3.44 ERA suggests, so good fortune in the ratio department could be coming his way from here on out. Mark Melancon notched the one-out for the Pirates today, inducing a two-out grounder off the bat of Victor Martinez with both first and third bases occupied and the potential tying run in the on-deck circle. This was the 25th of the year and 22nd successful conversion in-a-row for the Bucs’ right-hander. Shawn Tolleson earned his 12th save of the year for the Rangers in a 12-pitch inning.

More Quick Hits: The Dodgers designated Brandon League for assignment today. The 32-year-old right-hander was on the 60-day disabled list with a bum shoulder and failed to make a single appearance for the big league club this season. With almost $4M still due to him for the remainder of the season, League will likely pass through waivers and has the right to refuse any Minor League Assignment given his five years of service time. He’ll probably land himself a spot with a team looking for bullpen depth. The Orioles inked right-hander Chris Perez to a Minor League deal today, despite the fact the reliever is in the midst of a 50-game suspension for recreational drug use.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Daniel Hudson	Enrique Burgos	Addison Reed
Atlanta	Jason Grilli	Jim Johnson	David Aardsma
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Tommy Hunter
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Alexi Ogando
CHI (NL)	Jason Motte	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Rafael Soriano
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Jacob Petricka	Zach Putnam
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	J.J. Hoover	Ryan Mattheus	Tony Cingrani
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Zach McAllister
Colorado	LaTroy Hawkins	Boone Logan	Rafael Betancourt	John Axford
Detroit	Joakim Soria	Joba Chamberlain	Al Albuerquerque	Joe Nathan
Houston	Luke Gregerson	Pat Neshek	Josh Fields	Chad Qualls
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Fernando Salas
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Yimi Garcia	Pedro Baez
Miami	A.J. Ramos	Carter Capps	Steve Cishek
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Jeremy Jeffress	Will Smith
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Blaine Boyer	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Bobby Parnell	Carlos Torres	Jenrry Mejia
NY (AL)	Dellin Betances	Justin Wilson	Chasen Shreve	Andrew Miller
Oakland	Tyler Clippard	Evan Scribner	Eric O’Flaherty	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Ken Giles	Luis Garcia
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Arquimedes Caminero
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist	Seth Maness	Jordan Walden
SD	Craig Kimbrel	Brandon Maurer	Joaquin Benoit
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Hunter Strickland
Seattle	Carson Smith	Fernando Rodney	Mark Lowe
TB	Brad Boxberger	Jake McGee	Kevin Jepsen
Texas	Shawn Tolleson	Tanner Scheppers	Keone Kela	Neftali Feliz
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Steve Delabar	Brett Cecil	Miguel Castro
Wash.	Drew Storen	Casey Janssen	Matt Thornton	Aaron Barrett

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