Bullpen Report: June 5, 2018
• Justin Anderson received the last save opportunity for the Angels on Sunday, walking three batters but nonetheless securing the save. Blake Parker had pitched in the previous days so the speculation was he was still in the lead for saves and that remained true with Parker getting the call last night, pitching a scoreless ninth for his 4th save on the year. Parker walked and struck out a batter and now has a 2.86 ERA, 3.36 FIP, and 3.43 SIERA, which is good stuff considering how his season started. Parker’s SwStr% of 11.5% is behind his impressive 13.8% last year and his 28.9% GB% is far below last year’s mark of 47% which should cause some apprehension for anyone thinking he will run away with this, especially with Mike Scioscia at the helm. The Angels are currently 4 games back in the Wild Card, and if they are in the race in late July it’s possible an outsider will be brought in but among his peers in the pen in LA, Parker looks to be in the lead.
• While Robert Gsellman has squeezed his way into a save or two behind Jeurys Familia, free agent signing Anthony Swarzak should join the club soon, returning from the DL from a left oblique strain today for the Mets. Swarzak was impressive last year with a career high 30% K% and a 14% SwStr% suggesting it was the realish deal. Provided he’s healthy and close to last year’s whiffs, he should be back in the mix so he’s back on the grid.
• The Yankees and Tigers split their doubleheader yesterday with Aroldis Chapman getting a one out save (14) in the first game and Shane Greene striking out the side for the save (15) in the night game. Shane Greene was on the closer bubble earlier in the year but has been quite good of late. Since May, in 17.1 innings Greene has 11 saves and a 21/4 k/bb with a 2.08 ERA/2.89 FIP/2.51 SIERA with a 52.3% GB%. The Tigers won’t give Greene as many opportunities as some other teams but his job is secure and since he’s not quite the sure thing out of the pen it’s likely he won’t be moved at the deadline to a contender.
• The Yankees optioned Tommy Kahnle to Triple-A Scranton yesterday. Although he wasn’t on the grid and had an injury earlier in the year, Kahnle posted some eye-popping numbers last year and was a key deadline trade acquisition by the Yankees. Aaron Boone said Kahnle is healthy and that the “other relievers had kind of gone past him little bit.” Assuming he is healthy and returns to form Kahnle should be back in New York relatively soon. While he may not sniff any high leverage innings, when he’s going well he’ll provide tons of strikeouts and ratio help.
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
Not sure what the best forum to do this is, but why wasn’t Ryan Tepera given a save for his appearance June 3? He was brought into a 5 run game with 5 outs left, gave up a run that was charged to the previous pitcher, but otherwise got 5 outs.
Tying run was in the hole rather than on deck. I don’t think there’s actually any runs-to-outs relationship in the save rule despite three runs being the rule pertaining to the three outs of the ninth inning.
A save is one of three things: A) comes in with a lead of any size and pitches the last 3+ innings B) comes in to the final inning with a lead of 3 runs or less (the most common) or C) comes in with the tying run on deck. None of those criteria were satisfied in Tepera’s example.
Thought it was just comes in with lead of 3 runs or less, otherwise setup guys wouldn’t earn holds/blown saves when they pitch the 6th, 7th or 8th with a 3 run lead.
Holds do not function the same way.
Holds and blown saves are not official MLB statistics so the various sources that document them each have slightly different criteria which explains why you might find different totals at different websites:
https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/the-unofficial-rules-of-holds-and-blown-saves/
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/about_mlb/rules_regulations.jsp
Tying run was not on deck since there were only 2 guys on base.
Actually one of the things I did not realize until somewhat recently is that you do not get a save if you enter the game in the 9th with a 3 run lead, bases empty and there’s already 1 or 2 outs. You get so used to “closer comes in with a 3 run lead and closes it out for a save” that I don’t think I was ever aware of all the details. Don’t remember who it was but I had a game recently where the manager left the lefty in to face the 1st hitter of the inning and then brought in the “closer” to finish. I was expecting a save but 3 run lead and he only got 2 outs with the bases empty – no save, so sorry, better luck next time,.