Bullpen Report: July 30, 2016

As expected, the Nationals acquired a big arm for their pen by trading for Mark Melancon. The Nationals traded lefties Felipe Rivero and Taylor Hearn to the Pirates for Melancon, which shakes up two bullpens. Melancon will be the closer in Washington, and Jonathan Papelbon has reportedly handled the news well. Papelbon has struggled in his last three appearances giving up a total of 7 earned runs in 1 inning pitched. August Fagerstrom goes in depth about Melancon, who has been one of the best closers in baseball with a 1.51 ERA (2.66 FIP). The BB% (5.5) is the highest for Melancon since 2012 and Fagerstrom points out it is because hitters are laying off his curveball. Nothing to be of real concern just yet, but might be something to monitor down the road. The grid has Papelbon next in line despite Shawn Kelley having a better year, so that could change as we see more late inning situations. The Pirates will now turn to Tony Watson to close games out, who has also been good this year posting a 2.66 ERA (3.71 FIP). Some areas to look out for are his homeruns are slightly up (0.82 HR/9), and his BB% (8.6) is the highest it has been since 2012. The two years prior he has been elite and outside of a three game stretch in June, has not given up runs in back-to-back games. Neftali Feliz is now next in line for saves, followed by the newly acquired Felipe Rivero. Feliz has the better K rate (29.4%) and BB rate (7.2%) than Watson, but those HR/9 (1.37) are concerning. I’m tempted to keep Pittsburgh at green, but it’s a new closer so we’ll start off a little conservative with yellow.

Wade Davis is set to get an MRI on his right forearm tomorrow for the second time this season, which is definitely concerning. No roster move has been made, so there is not much to do with the grid just yet, though it seems as though a DL stint is inevitable. Kelvin Herrera is expected to close out games until Davis comes back, which is a great unknown right now. Luke Hochevar, who would’ve been next in line behind Herrera, has been placed on the 15-day DL with symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome. Joakim Soria now makes his way back on the grid, and if Davis were to be placed on the DL, it looks like Peter Moylan would make his first appearance of the year on our grid.

Will Harris blew his second save of the year, who has now given up 7 runs in the month of July, which includes a 4-run outing on July 8^th. After retiring the first two batters, Harris walked Upton and then gave up two singles that tied the game. Jose Iglesias hit a slow grounder to first that Harris was late to cover on, and the Tigers got the walk-off win. People have called for a change in color in the Houston grid to green, which we have kept at yellow. I don’t think this was as much of a negative against Harris, but more of a recognition of how good Giles has been lately. Since Giles gave up 2 runs on June 18^th, he has not given up a run in 12.1 innings allowing only 5 hits and 3 walks, while striking out 20 batters. Giles has a better K% (32.2) and BB% (7.3) than last year, but has been really hurt by the 5 HRs he’s allowed.

Raisel Iglesias is really settling in nicely as a reliever as he went three inning tonight striking out 5 and allowed only one hit. Since becoming a reliever, he has posted an 0.38 ERA, with 28 Ks, 9 BBs, and 8 Hs over 23.2 innings. Entering tonight, he had a 3.14 FIP and has stranded 100% of his runners, which will certainly regress. Tony Cingrani is starting to take a stronghold on the closer’s job, so we’ll move the Reds grid up a color, but I’m still not very impressed with Cingrani and expect Iglesias to take over this closer’s role in the future. Unless they really value Iglesias’ ability to pitch multiple innings or they opt to use him in higher leverage situations regardless of inning, Iglesias is the better pitcher and should be considered the Reds top reliever. Ah, fun with bullpens.

Quick Hits: Alex Colome earned two straight saves (23, 24) after striking out the side today. Since blowing his first save of the season a week ago, Colome has not allowed a base runner in three straight appearances. Milwaukee trade candidates Will Smith and Jeremy Jeffress each gave up a run tonight, but still managed to close the game out. Smith earned the hold (11) and Jeffress got the save (26). In a tie game in the 9^th, Ned Yost brought in Brooks Pounders who gave up the game-winning home run to Mitch Moreland, making that his third appearance out of four where Pounders has given up a run. Brandon Kintzler blew his first save of the year as Fernando Abad took a loss in the 9^th against the White Sox. David Robertson pitched a perfect tenth for the save (25). The Giants bullpen used 6 arms to shut down the Nationals, as Santiago Casilla needed 9 pitches for the save (23). Steve Cishek worked around a hit, striking out three to close out the Cubs (25). Huston Street threw a clean ninth for the save (9). Jake Barrett stranded two runners in the 8th and then was given the 9th inning with a 3-run lead. Although he allowed a home run, he still managed to close the game out for the save (3). Not sure why Tyler Clippard or Daniel Hudson were not used, but I’m not willing to shake up the grid just yet. Hopefully, we’ll have more information tomorrow.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Tyler Clippard	Daniel Hudson	Jake Barrett
Atlanta	Jim Johnson	Mauricio Cabrera	Chris Withrow	Arodys Vizcaino
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Brad Brach
Boston	Brad Ziegler	Matt Barnes	Junichi Tazawa	Craig Kimbrel
CHI (NL)	Aroldis Chapman	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Nate Jones	Zach Duke
Cincy	Tony Cingrani	Raisel Iglesias	Ross Ohlendorf
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Dan Otero
Colorado	Carlos Estevez	Adam Ottavino	Jake McGee
Detroit	Francisco Rodriguez	Justin Wilson	Shane Greene
Houston	Will Harris	Ken Giles	Luke Gregerson
KC	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Luke Hochevar
LAA	Huston Street	Cam Bedrosian	Joe Smith
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Joe Blanton	Adam Libatore	Yimi Garcia
Miami	A.J. Ramos	Fernando Rodney	David Phelps
Milwaukee	Jeremy Jeffress	Tyler Thornburg	Will Smith
Minnesota	Brandon Kintzler	Fernando Abad	Ryan Pressly	Glen Perkins
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Addison Reed	Hansel Robles	Jim Henderson
NY (AL)	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances	Chad Green
Oakland	Ryan Madson	John Axford	Ryan Dull	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jeanmar Gomez	Hector Neris	David Hernandez
Pittsburgh	Tony Watson	Neftali Feliz	Felipe Rivero
St. Louis	Seung Hwan Oh	Kevin Siegrist	Jonathan Broxton
SD	Brandon Maurer	Ryan Buchter	Kevin Quackenbush
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Hunter Strickland
Seattle	Steve Cishek	Edwin Diaz	Tom Wilhelmsen	Nick Vincent
TB	Alex Colome	Xavier Cedeno	Erasmo Ramirez
Texas	Sam Dyson	Jake Diekman	Keone Kela
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Jason Grilli	Joaquin Benoit
Wash.	Mark Melancon	Jonathan Papelbon	Shawn Kelley

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