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:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Daniel Hudson	Tyler Clippard
Atlanta	Arodys Vizcaino	Jim Johnson	Hunter Cervenka
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Mychal Givens	Brad Brach	Darren O’Day
Boston	Craig Kimbrel	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Justin Grimm
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Nate Jones	Zach Duke
Cincy	Tony Cingrani	Ross Ohlendorf	Blake Wood	Jumbo Diaz
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Dan Otero
Colorado	Carlos Estevez	Jason Motte	Boone Logan	Jake McGee
Detroit	Francisco Rodriguez	Justin Wilson	Shane Greene	Bruce Rondon
Houston	Will Harris	Ken Giles	Luke Gregerson
KC	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria
LAA	Huston Street	Fernando Salas	Cam Bedrosian	Joe Smith
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Pedro Baez	Joe Blanton	Yimi Garcia
Miami	A.J. Ramos	David Phelps	Kyle Barraclough
Milwaukee	Jeremy Jeffress	Will Smith	Tyler Thornburg
Minnesota	Brandon Kintzler	Fernando Abad	Kevin Jepsen	Glen Perkins
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Addison Reed	Jim Henderson
NY (AL)	Aroldis Chapman	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances
Oakland	Ryan Madson	Sean Doolittle	John Axford
Philly	Jeanmar Gomez	Hector Neris	David Hernandez
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Neftali Feliz	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist	Seung Hwan Oh
SD	Fernando Rodney	Ryan Buchter	Brandon Maurer
SF	Santiago Casilla	Cody Gearrin	Hunter Strickland	Sergio Romo
Seattle	Steve Cishek	Joaquin Benoit	Nick Vincent
TB	Alex Colome	Erasmo Ramirez	Xavier Cedeno	Brad Boxberger
Texas	Sam Dyson	Jake Diekman	Matt Bush	Keone Kela
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Gavin Floyd	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.]