Bullpen Report: June 18th, 2012

• It wasn’t a clean save tonight for Chris Perez as he gave up two hits and a run against the Reds, but he still notched his league leading 22nd save of the year. Chris Perez has an ERA (2.73) that is lower than his peripherals would indicate (3.81 xFIP) but even if he regresses, Perez has a firm grasp on the role in Cleveland which isn’t something I thought I would be saying in the Bullpen Report in March. The man expected to replace Perez, Vinnie Pestano, is  having a great year himself with a strikeout rate of 11.67 K/9 and a solid 3.31 xFIP but unless Perez is traded or injured, Pestano won’t be seeing regular save opportunities any time soon.

•  After a rough few days last week, it’s nice to see John Axford get back on track pitching a perfect ninth inning while striking out a batter tonight for his 12th save of the year against the Blue Jays. Axford’s ERA still looks out of whack at 5.13 and he’s been struggling with walks this year (5.81 BB/9) but he also has the best K/9 of his career (12.65) with a fine 3.31 xFIP. Axford has had more of an issue with sequencing (59.1% LOB%) this year than a decline in skills. Francisco Rodriguez  is next in line for saves but shouldn’t be considered a threat to take over the role, especially after Axford’s last two outings.  Also, K-Rod’s Swinging Strike %  this year (9.1%) is the lowest it’s ever been in his career (12.8%) — he might have the heralded “experienced closer” tag  but K-Rod simply isn’t near the pitcher he used to be.

• Brett Myers didn’t have the best of nights this evening giving up five runs on eight hits in only two-thirds of an inning in a non-save situation against the Royals. Surprisingly, the Astros were still able to win the game with Xavier Cedeno closing the door, getting the final out and the first save of his career. One bad outing won’t remove Myers from the closing gig in Houston (hey, he didn’t even blow the save!) but it might affect any trade value he had, which in a weird, twisted way might actually help him to get more saves this year for the Astros. Myers entered the game today with a shiny 1.99 ERA and left with a 3.86 ERA. Wow.  His ERA was a little misleading as his 94.6% LOB% and .194 BABIP weren’t sustainable and tonight’s outing can be seen as a big old case of regression. If Myers is able to put one (horrendously) bad outing behind him he should remain closing games in Houston, but that’s a tough game to put in the rear view mirror.

For those of you who play daily fantasy games like FanGraphs: The Game, or just like to stream players, here is a matchup you may be able to exploit.

A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Mitchell Boggs (STL) at DET

Justin Verlander is the best starting pitcher in baseball right now but Lance Lynn has been quite dominant himself (3.23 xFIP) and this matchup figures to be a close one that may come down to the bullpens if each starter doesn’t finish the game. Mitchell Boggs has had a solid season thus far and pitched a clean eighth inning last night for the hold before Jason Motte blew the save. Boggs doesn’t figure to get a save chance but is fully rested having an off day today could be in line for another hold tonight or even a vulture win.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	Injured
Arizona	J.J. Putz	David Hernandez	Bryan Shaw
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jonny Venters	Eric O’Flaherty
Baltimore	Jim Johnson	Pedro Strop	Matt Lindstrom
Boston	Alfredo Aceves	Andrew Miller	Mark Melancon	Andrew Bailey
Chicago (NL)	Carlos Marmol	James Russell	Shawn Camp
Chicago (AL)	Addison Reed	Hector Santiago	Matt Thornton
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Sean Marshall	Jose Arredondo
Cleveland	Chris Perez	Vinnie Pestano	Tony Sipp
Colorado	Rafael Betancourt	Matt Belisle	Matt Reynolds
Detroit	Jose Valverde	Joaquin Benoit	Octavio Dotel
Houston	Brett Myers	Wilton Lopez	David Carpenter
KC	Jonathan Broxton	Greg Holland	Aaron Crow
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Scott Downs	Jordan Walden
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Josh Lindblom	Shawn Tolleson
Miami	Heath Bell	Steve Cishek	Edward Mujica
Milwaukee	John Axford	Francisco Rodriguez	Jose Veras
Minnesota	Matt Capps	Glen Perkins	Alex Burnett
NY (NL)	Frank Francisco	Bobby Parnell	Jon Rauch
NY (AL)	Rafael Soriano	David Robertsonn	Boone Logan
Oakland	Ryan Cook	Brian Fuentes	Grant Balfour
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Antonio Bastardo	Chad Qualls
Pittsburgh	Joel Hanrahan	Jason Grilli	Juan Cruz
St. Louis	Jason Motte	Mitchell Boggs	Eduardo Sanchez
SD	Huston Street	Dale Thayer	Luke Gregerson
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Javier Lopez
Seattle	Tom Wilhelmsen	Brandon League	Charlie Furbush
Tampa Bay	Fernando Rodney	Joel Peralta	J.P. Howell	Kyle Farnsworth
Texas	Joe Nathan	Mike Adams	Koji Uehara
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Jason Frasor	Darren Oliver	Sergio Santos
Wash.	Tyler Clippard	Sean Burnett	Henry Rodriguez	Drew Storen

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