Bullpen Report: June 27, 2013

-With fans and fantasy owners on the edge of their seats, Red Sox skipper signaled for “new” closer Koji Uehara to close out the Blue Jays in the top of the ninth frame at Fenway today. The 38-year-old veteran needed just 16 pitches while facing the minimum to induce two strikeouts and a ground out en route to his second save since being named Andrew Bailey’s replacement last week and his third overall save on the season. The Japanese right-hander has now made eight consecutive appearances without surrendering an earned run and has lowered his twenty-thirteen ERA and WHIP to 1.97 and 0.81 respectively. Additionally, Uehara’s K% spiked to 37.4% after fanning two Toronto batters in today’s contest. Going forward, I’d consider Uehara a borderline top-ten closing option.

–Joaquin Benoit surrendered a hit and a walk, but struck out two in a scoreless inning of work against the Angels on Thursday. Benoit, who was tabbed the Tigers’ closer since Jose Valverde was designated for assignment, has now faced 16 batters in his last three-and-a-third innings of work. Not exactly efficient I know, but Benoit actually lowered his ERA to 1.95 and upped his K% to 30.7% after today’s outing. If someone in the comments were to ask me if I’d rather Uehara or Benoit for the rest of the season, I’d probably tell them Uehara, but both obviously need to be owned in all relative formats.

-Tonight’s one-hit scoreless outing gave Ernesto Frieri his second save in as many nights against the Detroit Tigers and his 19th on the season. The right-handed slinger faced one over the minimum in his 34th appearance and failed to fan an opposing batter for just the second time in his last ten outings. Despite such, Frieri still owns a K% just north of 33% on the year with a 3.12 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. He’s now 19-of-21 in save opportunities for the Angles in ‘13, but will need a few more consecutive clean outings to prove to me that he’s a top 20 closer the rest of the way.

-Club Heath was open for Happy Hour today, but the owner of said establishment refused to serve any longball refreshments to customers for the first time in the last six times it’s opened its doors. That clearly didn’t sound as good as I wanted it too, but we’re going with it anyway. Heath Bell notched his 14th save on the season tonight as the Diamondbacks clipped the Nationals 3-2 at Nationals Park. Heath Bell’s tenure as the closer in Arizona could come to an abrupt end once J.J. Putz is activated from the disabled list. Putz could return to the club tomorrow, but skipper Kirk Gibson he’s unsure how he would use the right-hander once he returns. I’d expect Putz to get the ninth-inning back very, very soon, making Bell droppable for most fantasy owners.

-The Cleveland Indians activated closer Chris Perez from the disabled list today. Despite Vinnie Pestano being a perfect 5-for-5 in save chances with Perez shelved, it appears as if Perez will slide right back into ninth-inning duties. Although manager Terry Francona admitted Perez is “good to go,” he acknowledge that the club will not be able to call on him to the bump on three consecutive days. With that said, those who own shares of Vinnie Pestano should remain in a holding pattern until we see how Perez performs upon his return, especially those desperate for save chances on that third day should the bearded one be unavailable.

Closer Grid:

 

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Heath Bell	David Hernandez	Matt Reynolds	J.J. Putz
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	Cory Gearrin
Baltimore	Jim Johnson	Darren O’Day	Tommy Hunter
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Andrew Bailey
CHI (NL)	Kevin Gregg	James Russell	Blake Parker
CHI (AL)	Addison Reed	Jesse Crain	Matt Thornton
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	J.J. Hoover	Sam LeCure	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Chris Perez	Vinnie Pestano	Joe Smith
Colorado	Rex Brothers	Wilton Lopez	Matt Belisle	Rafael Betancourt
Detroit	Joaquin Benoit	Drew Smyly	Al Alburquerque
Houston	Jose Veras	Hector Ambriz	Wesley Wright
KC	Greg Holland	Aaron Crow	Kelvin Herrera
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Scott Downs	Robert Coello	Ryan Madson
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Brandon League	Ronald Belisario
Miami	Steve Cishek	Mike Dunn	Chad Qualls
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Jim Henderson	John Axford
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Bobby Parnell	Brandon Lyon	LaTroy Hawkins	Frank Francisco
NY (AL)	Mariano Rivera	David Robertson	Joba Chamberlain
Oakland	Grant Balfour	Ryan Cook	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Antonio Bastardo	Justin De Fratus	Mike Adams
Pittsburgh	Jason Grilli	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Edward Mujica	Trevor Rosenthal	Fernando Salas	Jason Motte
SD	Huston Street	Luke Gregerson	Dale Thayer
SF	Sergio Romo	Jeremy Affeldt	Jean Machi	Santiago Casilla
Seattle	Yoervis Medina	Oliver Perez	Tom Wilhelmsen
TB	Fernando Rodney	Joel Peralta	Jake McGee
Texas	Joe Nathan	Tanner Scheppers	Jason Frasor
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Steve Delabar	Brett Cecil	Sergio Santos
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Drew Storen	Tyler Clippard

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