Bullpen Report: June 14th, 2014

First and foremost I’d like to wish all my fellow dads a Happy Father’s Day. If possible, sit down, put your feet up, grab a cold one and enjoy the nice slate of games on Sunday. You’ve earned it.

Now on to a few bullpen notes from around the league after Saturday’s games:

–Jonathan Papelbon fanned two of the three Cubs he faced on Saturday en route to his 15th save of the season. The successful conversion moves the veteran right-hander into sole possession of 24th place on the all-time saves list in the majors with 301. On that list, Papelbon is third among active closers behind Joe Nathan (354) and Francisco Rodriguez (324). It’s still amazing to me that the combined ninth-inning achievements of Francisco Rodriguez and Jonathan Papelbon (324 + 301 = 625 saves) would still fall short of the all-time leader, Mariano Rivera, by 27 saves.

Anyway, Papelbon seems to catch a bad rep for the steady decline in velocity and strikeouts, but the guy is still 15-of-16 in save chances this season with a 1.37 ERA (2.70 FIP) and a ~22% K%. Additionally, he’s converted 15 consecutive chances and has surrendered just one earned run since blowing his only save of the season back on April 2nd. If the righty continues to post fair numbers and the Phillies turn into sellers come the trade deadline — as they should — I’m wondering if there’s a team out there that would be willing to pony up some of Papelbon’s remaining $26m for this year and next to acquire the closer?

-Since we last caught up, we learned that Hector Rondon appears to be okay after experiencing a sore elbow last week. The Cubs have held Rondon out of game action since June 6th, but insist he could be available as early as tomorrow (June 15th) after the right-hander completed an 11-pitch bullpen without any setbacks. Rondon, who underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow back in 2010, admitted that he speaks to the trainer if he feels “anything in his elbow” as a precaution, which is likely what occurred in this situation. Rondon is 7-of-9 in save opportunities this season with a 2.45 ERA (1.76 FIP) and a 20% K-BB%. Neil Ramirez is having himself a fine season out of the bullpen for the Cubs — he’s 2-for-2 in save chances with a 1.13 ERA and a 35% K-BB% — so if by chance Rondon experiences a setback, Ramirez could get additional looks in the ninth. And if the North Siders are looking for more of a roller coaster ninth-inning experience, Pedro Strop — who also has a couple of saves under his belt in ‘14 — could get a shot as well.

–Sergio Romo blew a save on an inside-the-park homer by Brandon Barnes in the visitor’s half of the ninth tonight in San Francisco. Sure it was an inside-the-parker, but this was Romo’s fourth blown opportunity already this season, who had five in all of 2013 (43 chances). LaTroy Hawkins, the beneficiary of Romo’s misfortunes, picked up his 13th save on three consecutive groundouts as the Rockies clipped the Giants, 4-3. the 41-year-old Hawkins needed just 11 pitches to seal the deal for Colorado.

-Results of the MRI conducted on Jenrry Mejia’s back indicated the reliever had some swelling in lower back area in addition to the stiffness he felt upon being removed from the mound. Terry Collins mentioned that despite the swelling and stiffness that he does not anticipate Mejia needing a trip to the disabled list.

-Francisco Rodriguez (21), Trevor Rosenthal (19), Joakim Soria (15), Jason Grilli (11) and Zach Britton (7) each notched saves on Saturday.

Quick Hitters: Ian Krol surrendered two earned runs, but picked up his first career save in an inning-and-a-third of work. Kenley Jansen served up a longball in the ninth-inning, but overcame that to notch his 19th save of the year in a nine-pitch effort. Ernesto Frieri surrendered four earned runs on five hits to the Braves in bottom of the ninth. Frieri left the mound without retiring a batter for the first time this season, yikes! Keep Joe Smith on speed dial. Cody Allen sandwiched a fly ball out between two strikeouts to secure his seventh save of the season today on 12 pitches. Thanks to Allen’s efforts, John Axford earned his second victory of the ‘14 campaign.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Addison Reed	Brad Ziegler	J.J. Putz
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Shae Simmons	Jordan Walden
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Tommy Hunter	Darren O’Day
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Andrew Miller
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Neil Ramirez	Pedro Strop
CHI (AL)	Ronald Belisario	Zach Putnam	Jacob Petricka	Matt Lindstrom
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Jonathan Broxton	Sam LeCure
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	John Axford
Colorado	LaTroy Hawkins	Adam Ottavino	Rex Brothers
Detroit	Joe Nathan	Joba Chamberlain	Al Alburquerque	Joel Hanrahan
Houston	Chad Qualls	Kyle Farnsworth	Josh Fields	Jesse Crain
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Aaron Crow
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Joe Smith	Michael Kohn	Dane de la Rosa
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Chris Perez	Brian Wilson
Miami	Steve Cishek	A.J. Ramos	Mike Dunn
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Will Smith	Brandon Kintzler	Jim Henderson
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Jenrry Mejia	Jeurys Familia	Vic Black	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	David Robertson	Dellin Betances	Shawn Kelley
Oakland	Sean Doolittle	Luke Gregerson	Jim Johnson
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Antonio Bastardo	Jake Diekman	Mike Adams
Pittsburgh	Jason Grilli	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Carlos Martinez	Jason Motte
SD	Huston Street	Joaquin Benoit	Alex Torres
SF	Sergio Romo	Jeremy Affeldt	Jean Machi	Santiago Casilla
Seattle	Fernando Rodney	Danny Farquhar	Dominic Leone
TB	Grant Balfour	Jake McGee	Joel Peralta
Texas	Joakim Soria	Jason Frasor	Neal Cotts	Neftali Feliz
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Brett Cecil	Steve Delabar	Sergio Santos
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen

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