Bullpen Report: July 23, 2015

On a relatively slow night from a bullpen perspective, it’s probably important to note that the RotoGraphs team dropped our midseason reliever rankings this afternoon on the site. You can see the entire list here, which includes a surprising Fernando Rodney ranking from our friend Paul Sporer.

Despite giving up a free pass and an earned run in the top of the ninth, Trevor Rosenthal secured the three outs necessary to earn his 30th save of the season and the 4-3 victory for the Cardinals over the Royals. Although Rosenthal is now tied for the league lead in saves, he’s surrendered six earned runs in his last six trips to the bump. The 25-year-old’s ERA now sits at 1.75 on the year with a 2.18 FIP and a 3.16 xFIP. The velocity on each of Rosenthal’s offerings seems to be in line with previous years’ results, but he’s not inducing as many whiffs with the changeup (14.75% whiff rate) compared to the 20%+ whiff rate he flashed in each of his three previous seasons.

Rosenthal has appeared in each of the last three days and could be in line for a night off on Friday if the Red Birds find themselves in a save situation against the Braves. Seth Maness and Randy Choate each took the hill on Thursday as well, but one would assume they’d still be available if necessary tomorrow. Kevin Siegrist could get the nod if need be.

Glen Perkins retired Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Erick Aybar in order on 14 pitches to notch his 29th save for the Twinkies this evening. The southpaw is now 29-of-30 on the season in save chances with a 1.37 ERA (2.23 FIP). Entering tonight, Perkins owned a 0.86 WHIP paired with a 21.6% K-BB%. Although his strikeouts are down a bit compared to recent years, his K-BB% remains somewhat stable thanks to the dip in walks allowed as well. In today’s rankings update, Perkins came in as the 12th best reliever the rest of the way, but I’m already having second thoughts about the ranking I provided for him (14). He should be a few ticks higher.

Quick Hitters: Steve Cishek’s name continues to surface in trade rumors as the deadline approaches. The Dodgers, Cardinals, Twins and Blue Jays appear to be suitors for the former Marlins’ ninth-inning man. Tom Wilhelmsen earned his first save of the year during the Mariners win during extras in Detroit. Mark Lowe, Carson Smith and Fernando Rodney had each appeared prior to Wilhelmsen getting the call. New friend, Bo Schultz, picked up his first career save on two pitches while finishing off the Athletics for knuckleballer R.A. Dickey’s win. The save appearance for Schultz is likely due to the fact that both Roberto Osuna (32 pitches) and Brett Cecil (27 pitches) were on the heels of rather lengthy outings on Wednesday.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Daniel Hudson	David Hernandez	Addison Reed
Atlanta	Jim Johnson	Arodys Vizcaino	David Aardsma	Jason Grilli
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Tommy Hunter
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Alexi Ogando
CHI (NL)	Jason Motte	Hector Rondon	Rafael Soriano
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Jacob Petricka	Zach Putnam
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	J.J. Hoover	Ryan Mattheus
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Zach McAllister
Colorado	John Axford	LaTroy Hawkins	Boone Logan
Detroit	Joakim Soria	Al Albuerquerque	Neftali Feliz	Joe Nathan
Houston	Luke Gregerson	Pat Neshek	Chad Qualls
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Fernando Salas
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Pedro Baez	Juan Nicasio	Yimi Garcia
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
NY (AL)	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances	Justin Wilson
Oakland	Tyler Clippard	Edward Mujica	Drew Pomeranz	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Ken Giles	Luis Garcia
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Jared Hughes
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist	Seth Maness	Jordan Walden
SD	Craig Kimbrel	Joaquin Benoit	Brendan Maurer
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
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Steve Delabar	Brett Cecil	Miguel Castro
Wash.	Drew Storen	Casey Janssen	Aaron Barrett

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