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:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
With Perkins done for the year, shouldn’t Trevor May appear on the grid as the more relevant DL pitcher?
I think its safe to put St. Louis at red.
any stl. fans have insight on who will close if rosenthal is removed? ive got oh already but trying to decide if I should add siegrist as the more likely option.
Don’t put it past matheny to call on broxton
Yea, matheny is probably the worst person to handle this decision but I think it’s Oh, the whole LHP “can’t be closers” thing, Oh has been great, Matheny trusts him, Itl be Oh, not Siegy or Fat Broxton.
The thing with LHP is that you end up using them earlier in the game to get out key left handed hitters, or even to prevent LHH on the opposite team from coming into games. All things being equal, they are rarely able to serve as closers unless the bullpen has other strong LHP. Oh can do the job, so there is really no reason to look further. He was a closer in Japan & Korea.
Do you think Iglesias will get a tryout as closer in Cincy? They seem to want to protect his arm and he’s way more effective than anyone else they’ve got in that mess of a bullpen.
I have listened to Cin. broadcasters on the radio and they seem to think the change to Igleias to closer is inevitable. But he was pitching in the 6th yesterday, so he might need to build up some innings.
He still doesn’t have the K’s back it looks like. He may be a month or so from getting a full chance at closing. Then again, nobody is really going to be ahead of him in preventing his chances of being the closer so…
Colorado should be bright radioactive glowing red. Estevez only got the chance because Motte couldn’t get the job done, but he doesn’t profile like closer, and now he’s losing games. No reason to expect him to keep the job, plus McGee is getting close.
Ottavino is getting close as well
I can’t see McGee not getting first crack back at the job, but Ottavino may likely take over for him in the end. I could see McGee traded at the deadline. It would be a smart thing to try but it would just further make the trade for him in the offseason more foolish.