Bullpen Report: June 6th, 2012
• Huston Street was activated from the disabled list yesterday and proceeded to get the save last night against the Giants. It wasn’t the prettiest of saves with Street letting three batters reach base, but he didn’t surrender a run and looks primed to continue the great year he was having before his injury. The Dale Thayer experiment is officially over for now but it could rear its head again if Street were to miss time again or be traded because fellow setup man Andrew Cashner is now expected to enter the rotation at some point this year, leaving an open spot for the Padres to breed another reliever. Padres GM Josh Byrnes didn’t give a timetable for when Cashner can be expected to start but look for him to enter the starting rotation in the near future.
• As some very smart people mentioned in the comments of the last Bullpen Report, and Eno Sarris mentioned in a column earlier today, lefty closers are pretty rare which means Scott Downs may not remain the Angels closer for long. Although Downs has done well and hasn’t been removed from the role by manager Mike Scioscia, Ernesto Frieri has five saves to Downs’ three since Frieri was traded to the Angels. Oh, and since that date all Frieri has done is pitch 14.1 innings, striking out 30 of the 57 batters he has faced while giving up one hit. Not bad. Downs and Frieri still seem to be splitting closing duties somewhat, but look for Frieri to get more of the opportunities with the platoon advantage.
• With Santiago Casilla still sidelined with a leg injury, Sergio Romo came on tonight for his third save of the year against the Padres. Santiago Casilla was apparently available in case of an emergency and he should be back soon, avoiding the disabled list. Until then, look for Romo to get the save chances for San Francisco and when Casilla returns, for Romo to continue to be an elite setup man for the Giants, racking up strikeouts (23 in only 16.2 innings) and holds.
• Kenley Jansen, Jim Johnson, Craig Kimbrel, Chris Perez , Aroldis Chapman and Tyler Clippard all recorded saves tonight. All of the above also have a high level of job security on the closer role with Clippard being the exception as he’s filling in for the injured Drew Storen, but even he has been a perfect 5/5 on save opportunities since taking over closing duties for the Nationals. Brad Lidge, who has been on the DL since late April, pitched a scoreless inning today on a rehab assignment and is expected to return to Washington over the weekend. I would assume that Clippard holds the job when Lidge returns, but it should be noted that Johnson has yet to officially announce Clippard as the closer and initially preferred to keep Clippard as the setup man when Storen first went down.
For those of you who play daily fantasy games like FanGraphs: The Game, or just like to stream players, here is a matchup you may be able to exploit.
A Pitcher for Tomorrow: Shawn Tolleson (LAD) at PHI
Shawn Tolleson has yet to make his major league debut and could get a chance to show off his electric stuff tomorrow against the Phillies. Kenley Jansen has pitched on three consecutive days (and four of the last five) and Josh Lindblom the last two games, so Tolleson might have an opportunity for a hold as well.
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
Street pitched the top of the 9th in a tie game. Padres won in bottom of 9 th, he got the win, not a save situation.
You’re right. Still the underlying point is still clear — he’s back, pitching high leverage innings and contributing in fantasy terms.
(And that Thayer’s now bumped from getting regular save opps).