Bullpen Report: June 26, 2017
• Rough night for Craig Kimbrel as he only struck out one in a perfect inning for his 21st save. I’m a bit late to the game but I watched Fastball this weekend on Netflix which featured Craig Kimbrel and his heater quite a bit. While he was on the Braves when the film came out, he’s throwing even harder now (98.2 average mph on his fastball) and maybe even pitching better than ever, which says a lot. In 33.2 innings pitched this year, Kimbrel has 61 strikeouts against only five walks leading to a 1.07/0.43/1.12 ERA/FIP/xFIP pitching line. If you’re wondering if maybe SIERA is picking up something FIP is missing, well that’s at a cool 0.94. Kimbrel has broken advanced pitching metrics this year, again.
• No save situation in the desert (does anyone else remember dessert has an extra ‘S’ because an extra ‘SS apparently means it’s better?) but of some interest is Rubby de la Rosa who was called up when J.J. Hoover went to the DL. De la Rosa looks to be a full time reliever now after missing a lot of time last year with an injury to his elbow. Although he only threw 15.1 innings in AAA this year his 23/4 K/BB looks promising, small sample size warnings and all. It’s not uncommon for someone to improve their control when they move to the pen and as we all know it’s common for the velocity to increase. In tonight’s outing Rubby struck out two in a perfect inning and averaged 97.3 mph on his fastball, hitting 98.8 mph. If Rubby is striking out guys while throwing 98 with some new found control, he might jump the other de la Rosa (Jorge) on the Diamondbacks pecking order and join fellow converted reliever Archie Bradley for quite the formidable duo in the pen. I assume de la Rosa will be eased into the pen, not pitching on consecutive days but his stuff can be electric and it wouldn’t shock me to see impressive results.
• The Cubs scored three runs in the top half of the ninth to give them a five run lead and handed the ball off to Hector Rondon for an assumed easy ninth. After two hits and a walk, they called on Wade Davis but it was a bit bumpy. Nonetheless, four hits a walk and a wild pitch later Wade Davis was able to hold onto the lead 5-4. Even after a rough-ish outing Davis still has a 2.00/1.88/2.73 pitching line and it’s safe to say he’s still very green. Davis had some health concerns last year which lead to the cost of acquiring him being a Jorge Soler rather than Gleyber Torres + but he’s looked healthy all year and was throwing 97 tonight. Bearing a cranky elbow cracking up, Davis should continue to rack up saves with top tier-ish ratios.
• It will take injury for someone to leapfrog Cody Allen and/or Andrew Miller in Cleveland but Nick Goody is making a mini name for himself so far this year. In 30.2 innings Goody has an intriguing 1.17/3.46/4.13 pitching line and 34 strikeouts, albeit with a less than special 3.52 BB/9. He doesn’t have electric stuff but his 13.7% SwStr% proves his strikeouts are no fluke. Bryan Shaw has been a staple in the Indians pen for a while but Goody could make his way into some higher leverage innings.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
When he's not focusing on every team's bullpen situation, Ben can be found blogging at Ben's Baseball Bias and on Twitter @BensBias
Last night was already Rubby de la Rosa’s 2nd consecutive day pitching in relief. He allowed a hit and struck out 2 over one inning on Sunday, earning the hold. Looks like the Dbacks might be throwing him in the deep end from the get-go.