Bullpen Report: June 12, 2016
Yesterday I had mentioned that the Rockies had not announced a closer. Well, that was wrong as Weiss named Carlos Estevez as their closer while McGee is out. This came after Estevez recorded his first save and Weiss had said earlier that Estevez would be sharing duties with Jason Motte. Must have been nice for Estevez owners to hear their guy would get most of the saves, right? That was until Boone Logan got the one out save today, after Motte started the 9th off retiring the first two batters. He then walked his third hitter, and then Weiss called on Logan to get the last out as he earned his first save of the season. This wasn’t a case of Weiss going against his word. Instead, Estevez was due some rest after throwing 28 pitches on Friday and closing out last night’s game despite Weiss saying he wanted to avoid that. This was just a normal day of rest for Estevez, and he should be getting the rest of the save opportunities. I left it at Yellow because it is a Colorado pitcher and I don’t think the Rockies will hesitate to pull him if he began to struggle in the 9th.
Ah, the beauty of the win statistic. Jonathan Papelbon came into a tied game in the 9th and gave up a home run to Maikel Franco. So Jeanmar Gomez entered the game in the bottom of the inning looking for his 20th save of the season. Gomez has had only one blown save before the inning. That changed today after loading the bases and giving out a two-run single to Jayson Werth to end the game, making it only his 2nd blown save of the season. Who gets the win? Papelbon, despite giving up a run that initially broke the tie. Anyway, enough complaining about the rules behind who does and doesn’t earn wins. Gomez entered the game with a 2.61 ERA (3.66 FIP) and left with a 3.13 ERA (3.74 FIP). Gomez has still had a strong year, as his K% has jumped about 4 percentage points from his career average and his BB% is lower than his career average. Gomez had not given up a run since the beginning of the month. Papelbon has a similar ERA (3.28) and FIP (3.60), but has not had a clean inning since May 29th. He hasn’t necessarily been giving up runs in his appearances; he just seems to make things more interesting on a regular basis. Nobody in this game is in danger of losing their job, but an interesting end to a tied ballgame.
Sam Dyson earned his 10th save of the season, but might’ve been saved by rookie Nomar Mazara. With one out in the 9th, Ketel Marte hit a double. After Seth Smith moved Marte over, Robinson Cano hit a hard line drive that scored Marte, but then got thrown out about Mazara trying to go to 2nd. Despite the minor blip today, Dyson has been strong as the Rangers closer, as this was only his fourth appearance to give up a run since being named closer. He’s had 14 Ks in 12.2 innings, with only one BB and 9 Hs. Jake Diekman also earned his 16th hold during this game.
Quick notes: Jason Grilli earned his 3rd save of the season. Roberto Osuna was not expected to pitch Saturday, so I’m not sure why he didn’t pitch today. We’ll let you know if anything comes up. Wade Davis (17), Jeremy Jeffress (18), Santiago Casilla (13) and Francisco Rodriguez (19) all earned saves today.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
Guessing Madson gets moved since it would take much more to land Doolittle. Is Doolittle the guy to own looking past the trade deadline for fantasy saves?
What to make of Twins situation? Kintzler brought in the 8th innings and then looks bad in the process.
The Twins RP situation is simple; Do not roster a twins RP.
Yeah, I was gonna mention this. I guess since Molitor said Kintzler and Abad will share the closing duties, Abad was meant to get the one tonight while Kintzler set up for him?
Grillli is #2 in Toronto not Storen. There is something wrong with Storen; his slider has lost it’s bite and his fastball on its own is too hittable.
Estevez had also pitched 4 of the last 5 days cumulatively, further affirming that he needed a breather (get it? Colorado?)
I think Jeanmar is in greater danger of losing his closing role than you do. He’s been pitching much worse through May than he did in a strong April, his peripherals would make him unrosterable if he didn’t have the closer title. Lacking that closer skillset that others in the pen have, I think he’s challenged for the job after a few more mediocre outings…which, let’s face it, we’ve all been expecting and his luck will run out more often like yesterday.
As for who would get the role after him, IDK. Neris has also fallen off; Hernandez, maybe; Bailey doesn’t seem to be trusted with high leverage. Perhaps the saving grace for Jeanmar is that he doesn’t have a serious challenger behind him.
His velo chart is odd…. sinker is showing a lot of range lately: about 8 MPH of gap between fastest/slowest the last 4 games. Beginning of the season it was consistent.
I watched the end of the Nats game last night. Really odd that he threw a couple of 87mph sinkers when I was expecting 92-93…