Bullpen Report: June 26, 2014
-Tonight’s ride on the Hector Rondon rollercoaster went off without a hitch. Rondon induced two groundouts to start the ninth before striking out Danny Espinosa to seal the 5-3 victory for the Cubs against the Nationals. The 14-pitch outing for Rondon is a relief for fantasy owners and Cubs nation alike, especially considering he’s allowed eight earned runs in his past five outings. As for the rest of the bullpen, Neil Ramirez finished off the seventh-inning and Pedro Strop allowed a hit in the eighth, but failed to allow the Nats to capitalize on Adam LaRoche’s bunt single. Rondon, available in ~60% of Yahoo! leagues, is now 9-of-11 in save opportunities with a 3.68 ERA (2.19 FIP) and a 28.4% K%.
-Is it me, or does Ernesto Frieri blow up every time it’s my turn to churn out the Bullpen Report? Don’t answer that. He did it again this evening, allowing three earned runs on two walks and a hit in just two-thirds of an inning before being yanked in favor of Joe Smith. Smith took the hill with the bases juiced full of Frieri’s runners and gave up the bases-clearing double to Joe Mauer, ouch. Smith proceeded to fan Kendry Morales to stop the bleeding and notch his seventh save of the season. Like Rondon, Smith is still available in ~60% of Yahoo! leagues.
-Arguably the best pitching duel of the night took place in Chavez Ravine between veterans Josh Beckett and Adam Wainwright. Beckett dished seven scoreless — and is now up to 14 consecutive scoreless innings — with four strikeouts before giving way to the bearded man, Brian Wilson. Wilson fanned two of his own in an inning of work and became the beneficiary of a Justin Turner RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to put the Dodgers up 1-0. Kenley Jansen took the bump in the visitor’s half of the ninth and needed just nine pitches to close out the Cards and notch his 24th save of the season.
The right-handed closer is now 24-of-27 in save chances this season with a 4.01 ERA (1.91 FIP) and a ~31% K-BB%. Jansen sealed the victory for Wilson, his first of the season, who now owns a 4.82 ERA (4.56 FIP) of his own to go along with 14 holds. Despite the ugly ratios, Wilson has actually improved each month since the start of the season in terms of ERA and wOBA against.
-Quick Hitters: Mark Melancon dished a clean ninth frame for his 14th save of the season. Francisco Rodriguez picked up his league-leading 26th save of the season on just nine pitches at home against the Rockies. Rodriguez feels like he’s been around forever — he’s just 32-years-old — and is now tied with John Wetteland for 12th all-time with 330 career saves.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
In addition to contributing to the RotoGraphs blog, you can find Alan at his own site, TheFantasyFix.com and follow his nonsense on Twitter @TheFantasyFix.
Kyle Farnsworth has been DFA’d by Houston, need to replace him on the grid.
If you visit Fangraphs regularly and play in a league in which Hector Rondon is available, then it’s time to turn up the difficulty level a little.
I think you can replace Bastardo with Ken Giles in the “first” column for PHL. Diekman would still be second. Still not a lot of trust in ODB, and Giles has been really really good.
I don’t see where you are getting this from, just a gut feeling from a fan?
The most recent usage of their bullpen on 6/26 suggests Diekman might be the #1 8th inning lefty (but then he gave up a walk and a hit, and almost lost the game)
The first person in after Papelbon was Bastardo… THEN Giles (who walked a guy and K’d no one)
I’d say it’s a toss up for holds in there at the moment,
but I would bet Bastardo gets the next shot at closing if Paplebon can’t go.
I also think that Bastardo and/or Papelbon will be traded.
Unless Phillies are willing to eat a lot of Papelbon’s contract, it is hard to see him getting traded. Considering the criticism of that contract even at signing time, they are going too eat a big slice of humble pie along with that contract.
Hard to say which one would be tougher to swallow!
But it would not surprise me to see Papelbon remain with the Phillies, even after the fire sale. Getting one save per month again…
It may not be statistically arguable but IF they deal Papelbon, it will be because they accept rebuilding and that would likely mean they’d like to see if Giles is the future, because they know Bastardo isn’t it.
Glen Perkins hasn’t worked since 6/21. Is his back still hurting or no
save opportunites?
Looks like Jame McGee is the closer in TB now. 2 saves in the past two days, with Balfour setting up (and not looking that good).
The last save, Jake had to clean up Balfour’s mess in the 8th (allowing one of Grant’s runs to score), stranding the tying run at 3rd base with Cruz at the plate, before pitching a clean 9th.
Maybe they need to change the description of this page. “Daily updates”? It’s been 3 days since the last posting, things have changed in Chicago and SF, Soria is struggling in Texas…and yet there’s nothing here.
Oh, plus Doolittle blowing a save with Cook getting the next one and McGee getting the last two saves in Tampa. Tampa.
Where’s Eno when we need him? COME BACK ENO!
Yea, life happens sometimes Spike, sorry. I was supposed to update last night, but had both kids vomiting. Ben should be updating tonight, but it seems like you already have an idea of whats going on.
“Sorry I had a life” is the most common insult/reply that active players get, but I wouldn’t expect to get it from one of the writers on a site devoted to fantasy advice.
There were posts every day from June 21st on, and then disappearance for 3 days. That’s all.
Don’t misread my response, it was a sincere apology not an insult. I thought you deserved as much since you’re an avid reader/commenter, instead of just ignoring your note. And based on our consistent track record of providing said advice, I’d hope for a little more understanding from the regular readers when this stuff comes up.
Spike = stroke