Bullpen Report: June 13, 2016

Good morning! Coming at you from a different time after a late slate of games, and the same may be true for the 14th. Apologies to all the night owls, who may just need to pull a couple of all-nighters. Ok, onto the report.

Shawn Kelley recorded his first save of the season, after Dusty Baker reported Jonathan Papelbon was unavailable due to soreness. Baker did not say what kind of soreness he experienced, and that Papelbon would be reevaluated on Tuesday. Kelley looked very sharp throwing 1.2 innings and striking out 4, while allowing no baserunners. Kelley has been strong all season posting a 2.70 ERA (1.96 FIP) along with a career best K% (38.2) and 2nd-best BB% (5.6). Looking forward to tomorrow if Papelbon is still a no-go, Kelley should be able to pitch again despite throwing 1.2 innings as he only threw 21 pitches, which is low for that long of an outing. If he can’t go, expect Felipe Rivero to get the save opportunity.

Daniel Hudson thought it would be fun to load the bases for Brad Ziegler to see how difficult of a jam he could get of in the 8th inning against the Dodgers. With one out already on the board, Ziegler managed to record two outs (one via the strikeout) to escape the 8th. Then, Ziegler did what he does best and induced three straight groundouts to close the game out for his 13th save. The 16:11 K:BB ration would worry me to no end as a Ziegler owner, but he has 13 saves with no blown saves (he has given up runs in non-save situations). And I guess what is somewhat more important are the 0 home runs he has allowed. I realized I probably just jinxed him moving forward, but facts are facts.

Now it’s time to talk about everybody’s favorite bullpen. The Reds had an interesting night as Ross Ohlendorf blew his second save of the season in the 8th allowing a home run to “the” Adonis Garcia. He then created his own jam after giving up a single and two walks. The Reds would then break the tie in the top of 9th giving Ohlendorf a shot at the win, if Tony Cingrani could close the game. Cingrani pulled a Ziegler and got three worm-killers for his 7th save of the season.

Quick notes: Derek Law and Zach Neal recorded their first saves of the season, but I wouldn’t go running to your waiver wire. Law provided a much needed rest to a Giants bullpen that was taxed with pitching agains the Dodgers this weekend, and once the Giants had a commanding lead, it made sense to leave Law in. Neal, on the other hand, earned the 3 inning save after Oakland took quite the lead scoring 14 in the first 5 innings. Wade Davis (18) also earned a save.

 

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	Jason Grilli	Gavin Floyd	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Jonathan Papelbon	Shawn Kelley	Felipe Rivero

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