Bullpen Report: July 9, 2016

Couple of injuries and movement of closers have shaken up the grid over the past few days, so let’s look and see how those situations are going to work out.

Talk about timing in Boston. Around the same time Craig Kimbrel was placed on the DL, the Red Sox traded for Brad Ziegler. It appears that Koji Uehera will get most of the save opportunities, especially after closing Friday and Saturday night’s game, even though Ziegler was not placed on the active roster yet. Uehera looked sharper on Saturday allowing only one hit and striking out two while allowing no runs. Friday, he gave up a solo HR, but still managed to earn the save. Uehera has struggled with the longball at various times throughout his career, and this year it seems to have been a bigger issue. He has given up 8 HRs in 33.2 innings, and has a groundball rate under 20% this season. Ziegler, on the other hand, is the groundball master and can be a nice complement to Uehera in those situations with runners on base. My guess is that Uehera will close those games where the Red Sox have a lead greater than one and once trouble starts, Ziegler will get the ball. I put the Red Sox situation currently at yellow, but I can easily see it moving to red if the Red Sox use a more committee approach. I also snuck Matt Barnes on the chart with Junichi Tazawa’s recent injury. Tazawa’s injury is said not to be too serious. Barnes has been scoreless in his last four outings allowing only a walk and a hit, in addition to pitching in some high leverage spots because of the injuries.

With the Ziegler trade, what does this mean for Arizona? According to Chip Hale, Tyler Clippard and Daniel Hudson are going to share the role, which is always music to fantasy owners ears, right? The Ks are down for Hudson from last season and although his ERA is high (4.50), his FIP (3.83) is more in line with what he did last year. He has managed to keep the HRs down, which is essential, especially when Clippard is struggling with that this season. Clippard has a better K rate (30.2%) and ERA (3.06), but his FIP (3.70) is right around Hudson, so the match-up approach may be Hale’s best bet. I really struggled finding their second in line, so I went Jake Barrett who is nothing special, but has seen some usage in the set-up role. I easily could’ve slid Randall Delgado in that role, but what fun is that?

Kelvin Herrera earned his first save for Kansas City on Saturday, and after Joakim Soria struggled on Thursday giving up a run and then allowed two baserunners on Saturday in his inning, I’d feel more comfortable with Herrera being the guy until Davis comes back. It is still a brand new role for Herrera so I didn’t want to mess with the red designation so far, but I can easily see the KC chart changing to yellow after a couple of more converted saves for Herrera.

Quick Notes: Nate Jones converted his third save of the season after David Robertson was unavailable. Nothing major and Robertson believes he will be back right after the All-Star break. Oakland’s Ryan Dull allowed his first inherited runners to score this season, but still managed to earn his first save of the season. With another blown save by Madson on Friday, Dull may be a name to look for moving forward as someone Bob Melvin may trust with this higher leverage situations.

Closer Grid:

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	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Daniel Hudson	Tyler Clippard	Jake Barrett
Atlanta	Arodys Vizcaino	Jim Johnson	Hunter Cervenka
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Mychal Givens	Brad Brach	Darren O’Day
Boston	Koji Uehara	Brad Ziegler	Matt Barnes	Craig Kimbrel
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Justin Grimm
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Nate Jones	Zach Duke
Cincy	Tony Cingrani	Ross Ohlendorf	Jumbo Diaz
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Dan Otero
Colorado	Carlos Estevez	Jake McGee	Adam Ottavino
Detroit	Francisco Rodriguez	Justin Wilson	Shane Greene	Bruce Rondon
Houston	Will Harris	Ken Giles	Luke Gregerson
KC	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Luke Hochevar	Wade Davis
LAA	Huston Street	Fernando Salas	Joe Smith
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Pedro Baez	Joe Blanton	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)	Aroldis Chapman	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances
Oakland	Ryan Madson	John Axford	Ryan Dull	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jeanmar Gomez	Hector Neris	David Hernandez
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Neftali Feliz	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Seung Hwan Oh	Jonathan Broxton	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist
SD	Brandon Maurer	Ryan Buchter	Kevin Quackenbush
SF	Santiago Casilla	Cory Gearrin	Hunter Strickland	Sergio Romo
Seattle	Steve Cishek	Joaquin Benoit	Edwin Diaz	Nick Vincent
TB	Alex Colome	Xavier Cedeno	Erasmo Ramirez
Texas	Sam Dyson	Jake Diekman	Matt Bush	Keone Kela
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Jason Grilli	Drew Storen	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Jonathan Papelbon	Shawn Kelley	Felipe Rivero

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