Bullpen Report: June 1, 2015

Hoping you all had a nice Monday, enjoying my birthday. Here are a few quick updates from the weekend before we get into tonight’s action:

• Since being removed from the closer’s role, Addison Reed has made a few adjustments, leading to increased velocity on his slider. He’s put up zeroes in his last four appearances and he might be inching his way back into saves in Arizona.  Brad Ziegler has been a little shaky of late, and while he’s still closing in Arizona at the moment, it might not be long before a change is made as Chip Hale hinted at using Reed in the ninth again. This situation has now been upgraded to Code Red.

• Santiago Casilla had a night to forget last night, blowing his third blown save of the season after allowing four runs in the ninth inning. Casilla has rewarded fantasy owners with an impressive 15 saves and four wins, but his 4.48 FIP/4.12 xFIP is less than impressive. There has been no chatter about a change in SF but ex-closer Sergio Romo has been the better pitcher this year with a 3.63/1.81/2.05 ERA/FIP/xFIP line and 25/5 K/BB in 17.1 innings. I would grab Romo if he’s available as a speculative pick up, he shouldn’t hurt your team and could be a second half saves sleeper. Stay tuned.

• Sean Doolittle’s return did not last long as he was placed back on the DL with a shoulder strain. The A’s situation was iffy before with Doolittle working himself back into possible save situations, but now that he’s gone it’s Clippard’s job again and that job is lush with green on the closer’s grid.

• No save situation in the Cubs game tonight, but Travis Wood threw a scoreless ninth, allowing one walk while striking out two. Wood has been decent since leaving the Cubs rotation, throwing four innings with a 6/4 K/BB in five appearances. It’s noting particularly impressive but the Cubs bullpen isn’t all that impressive either. While I doubt Wood will be a fixture for any vulture saves in Chicago,  he could cement himself as a later inning bullpen piece and a holds sleeper.

• Luke Gregerson pitched a perfect ninth for his 14th save on the year. Gregerson had a few blips in mid-to-late May but he’s thrown three consecutive scoreless innings with six strikeouts and looks to be back on track. Will Harris received the win for Houston throwing 1.2 scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings lowering his ERA to 0.35. Harris was shadily solid last year in Arizona and the Astros were smart to select him off of waivers as he’s been an incredible asset in there bullpen. Harris won’t maintain a .100 BABIP all year but he had solid peripherals last year and this season he’s killing tons of worms with a 54.9 GB%.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Addison Reed	Daniel Hudson	Enrique Burgos
Atlanta	Jason Grilli	Jim Johnson	Luis Avilan
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Tommy Hunter
Boston	Koji Uehara	Alexi Ogando	Junichi Tazawa
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Jason Motte
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Jacob Petricka	Zach Duke
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Jumbo Diaz	Tony Cingrani	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Zach McAllister
Colorado	John Axford	Rafael Betancourt	Boone Logan	Adam Ottavino
Detroit	Joakim Soria	Joba Chamberlain	Angel Nesbitt	Joe Nathan
Houston	Luke Gregerson	Chad Qualls	Pat Neshek
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Fernando Salas
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Yimi Garcia	Chris Hatcher	Pedro Baez
Miami	A.J. Ramos	Bryan Morris	Carter Capps	Steve Cishek
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Jeremy Jeffress	Will Smith
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Blaine Boyer	Brian Duensing	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Carlos Torres	Sean Gilmartin	Jenrry Mejia
NY (AL)	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances	Justin Wilson	Chris Martin
Oakland	Tyler Clippard	Evan Scribner	Dan Otero	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Ken Giles	Luis Garcia
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Arquimedes Caminero
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Seth Maness	Matt Belisle	Jordan Walden
SD	Craig Kimbrel	Joaquin Benoit	Dale Thayer
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Jeremy Affeldt
Seattle	Fernando Rodney	Carson Smith	Tom Wilhelmsen	Danny Farquhar
TB	Brad Boxberger	Jake McGee	Kevin Jepsen
Texas	Shawn Tolleson	Keone Kela	Ross Ohlendorf	Neftali Feliz
Toronto	Brett Cecil	Roberto Osuna	Steve Delabar	Miguel Castro
Wash.	Drew Storen	Aaron Barrett	Casey Janssen	Casey Janssen

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