Bullpen Report: July 6, 2014
Extremely brief notes in a pinch-hit effort this evening:
With the potential tying run in the on-deck circle for the Tigers in the bottom of the ninth, Joe Maddon pulled starter David Price in favor of flamethrowing Jake McGee to finish the game. And McGee did just that, fanning Austin Jackson on five pitches to notch his fifth save of the season. The 27-year-old southpaw now owns a 1.16 ERA to go along with a ~31% K% in just under 39 innings on the bump. We’ve discussed McGee and the possibility of the Rays wanting to keep him from notching too many saves to keep his arbitration numbers down — which could still be the case — but don’t let that keep you from adding him in your mixed leagues. Jake McGee is available in 64% of Yahoo! leagues at the time of this writing and will bring the heat in the ratio and strikeout categories while picking up the occasional scab win even if the Rays’ brass plays games with his role out of the bullpen.
Aroldis Chapman wasn’t available for the Reds on Sunday due to a tweaked hamstring, so Jonathan Broxton earned the nod in the save situation. Broxton needed just nine pitches to induce three consecutive groundouts en route to his sixth save of the year. The husky right-handed set-up man is now 6-of-8 in save opportunities this season with a 0.64 ERA and an ~18% K%. Although Bryan Price hopes his All-Star closer will be available for Monday’s game, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Reds asked Broxton to fill-in a few more times until Chapman is 100%.
David Robertson (21), Rafael Soriano (21), Addison Reed (20) and Zach Britton (14) each notched saves today. The Orioles have used their closer in three of the last four days, so if by chance Baltimore is in a save situation tomorrow in Washington, Darren O’Day or Tommy Hunter could get a look.
Santiago Casilla picked up his third save of the season tonight, leading the Giants’ skipper, Bruce Bochy, to name Casilla the “closer for now” in San Francisco. The right-hander is available in 68% of Yahoo! leagues at the moment.
Quick Hits: Sean Doolittle surrendered a pinch-hit home run to Steve Tolleson, but escaped the ninth-inning with his 13th save on the year for the Athletics. Cody Allen picked up a two out save in relief of Corey Kluber, his ninth save on the season. Allen, available in more than 40% of Yahoo! leagues, is 9-of-10 in save chances with a 2.39 ERA (2.93 FIP) and a ~31% K. Jake Petricka notched his third save of the year in a two-inning, two strikeout effort.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
In addition to contributing to the RotoGraphs blog, you can find Alan at his own site, TheFantasyFix.com and follow his nonsense on Twitter @TheFantasyFix.
A.J. Ramos is on the disabled list for the Marlins and will be updated for tomorrow.
Steve Tolleson hit that homer , not Shawn.
Good catch, thank you.
I know you don’t want to be too reactionary but I think the White Sox situation is probably flipped. Putnam hadn’t “established” himself at all in the role and blew his last save. Next save opportunity they brought in Petricka, who converted. Chances are, the manager will give him another chance at the next opportunity, and if he converts again, he could likely take a stronger hold of the position. As a Putnam owner (I was desperate) I’m not happy about it, but that seems to be the way these things play out.
I agree. They should be flipped on the grid next publication unless something changes (i.e. Ventura says something supportive of Putnam).
Think about it; would you not rather have Petricka than Putnam right now on your fantasy team?
With Jake McGee, it looks like they were just waiting to get past the half-way point, so that he would not end up with 50+ saves. According to the excellent article from the Hardball Times, the key is getting past that first year of arbitration. That was last year for McGee, and he is now half-way through the second year with less than 10 saves.
From this point on, I think they are going to let him accumulate saves and build up his resume so that they can trade him in 2016 or so.
Here is the article for those who missed it:
Hmm…. Ok, I will just put the link in, the html seems not to work…
http://www.hardballtimes.com/how-paying-established-closers-saves-teams-money/