Bullpen Report: June 25, 2016

Things have been tough for Trevor Rosenthal lately, to put it nicely. Tonight’s game certainly did not help the Cardinals confidence in him, as he blew a two-run lead in the 9th. Rosenthal didn’t retire a batter after giving up a lead-off double, a walk, and then a walk-off three run homer by Adam Lind to seal the deal. Rosenthal has blown four of his last seven opportunities, and has not thrown a clean full inning since June 9th. His ERA is now up to 5.63 after this latest appearance. For more on Rosenthal’s struggles, check out this article by Paul Swydan. Regarding the current situation in St. Louis, nothing has been said whether or not he will lose the closer role just yet, but if I owned him, I would be prepared for a change coming up soon.

Carlos Estevez started off very strongly as the Rockies closer converting his first four save opportunities, while allowing only one hit. The last two appearances were quite different as Estevez took his fourth loss on Thursday and his fifth on Friday, while blowing his third save on the year. On Thursday, Estevez struck out the first two batters and then allowed three straight singles giving up a run in a tied ballgame. Friday’s loss hurt a little more as the Rockies entered the 9th with a one-run lead. Estevez gave up three hits, including a homer, and two runs to raise his ERA to 4.44. In that same game, Brad Ziegler earned his 16th save after giving up a lead-off double.

Matt Bush was given an opportunity for his first save of his career, as Dyson was unavailable, and instead earned his first loss and blown save. Jake Diekman was given a shot at the save first as he entered the 9th with a 3-run lead. Diekman gave up a walk and a double in 0.2 inning. After allowing the run-scoring double, Jeff Bannister called on Bush to get the final out with Mookie Betts representing the tying run. After throwing two sliders, Bush threw a 97 MPH fastball that Betts took out of the ballpark to tie the game. He then allowed a walk, a double, and a wild pitch to get the go ahead home. Bush has been excellent so far this season allowing a run in only two other appearances and should still hold a high leverage role. Bouncing back from a loss like this will be essential for Bush whose ERA shot up from 1.02 to 2.00. Also in this game, Craig Kimbrel was unavailable so Koji Uehara was called on to close the 9th and struck out the side to earn his 2nd save of the season.

Quick Notes: This BR definitely focused on the negative, but there were a lot of saves as well this Friday. Mark Melancon (21), Aroldis Chapman (14), Zach Britton (22), Hector Rondon (13), Jeurys Familia (25), David Roberton (19), Jeremy Jeffress (20), Ryan Madson (14), and Santiago Casilla (17) all earned saves on Friday. Familia got a four-out save after a pretty interesting 9th inning. After allowing the first two runners on in the 9th with no outs, Wilmer Flores turned a double play on a dropped short flare that caused confusion amongst the Braves baserunners. Familia then struck out the final batter, but the ball got by Travis d’Arnaud. d’Arnaud threw down to James Loney who made a great stretch to get the final batter out of by a hair.

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	Cory 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.	Shawn Kelley	Felipe Rivero	Sammy Solis	Jonathan Papelbon

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