Bullpen Report: May 1, 2014

–Francisco Rodriguez’s grasp on the ninth-inning role in Milwaukee may have grown little tighter this evening, without even throwing a pitch. The Brewers’ former closer, Jim Henderson, who had been lurking in Rodriguez’s shadows waiting for another shot to close games, imploded in the eighth-inning of a tie-game and took his first loss on the year. Henderson yielded five earned runs on four hits and an intentional walk, while striking out one in his two-thirds of an inning, 18 pitch effort. Prior to tonight’s implosion, Henderson was 2-0 with two holds and a 3.38 ERA (1.22 WHIP). He’s been striking out more (37.2% K%) and walking less (7.0% BB%) batters than he has in the past despite the velocity on his two primary offerings being down a tick. Henderson sat 91-94 on the 4-seam fastball tonight, while his sliders came in at 84-85. Rodriguez is a perfect 13-for-13 in save chances this season with a 0.00 ERA. All green here for the time being.

-Two save chances in a day? Two save chances in day! And both were successfully converted by Rays’ closer Grant Balfour in Boston. In all, Balfour dished two innings, allowing two hits and one walk and fanned three Red Sox on 38 pitches. Balfour is now 6-of-7 in save chances on the year with a 5.11 ERA (5.54 xFIP). Considering both Balfour and Jake McGee skipped to the bump twice today, (gulp) Heath Bell could get an ninth-inning look tomorrow should the Rays be in a save situation.

–Koji Uehara took his first loss of the season this evening as the Rays clipped the Red Sox 6-5 in the second half of a double-header. Immediately following the game Eno Sarris sends me a message to take a look at Koji’s velocity (among other things) from tonight suggesting that something could be wrong with the 38-year-old closer. We found that Uehara’s splitter sat in the 78-83 mph range while his four-seamer came in at 85-88 mph. The right-hander owns a career average 88.2 mph on the fastball, but he only touched 88 on two of his 13 pitches. Seems to be a touch low compared to that of his career averages, so I kept looking. And as I’m researching this data, I see Alex Speier write “Koji Uehara Says He’s Not Injured.” in my timeline. Weird. Tonight Koji surrendered his second homer in his last three outings and failed to fan a batter for the first time all season. Apparently Eno wasn’t the only one who noticed. Speier indicated that Uehara and John Farrell mentioned that there isn’t anything physically wrong with the reliever. And I’m not sure there is either, but it’s worth keeping a (close) eye on. Testing his trade value in your league may not be a bad idea. In the meantime, I’m going to keep digging on this…

–Quick Hits: Steve Cishek converted the famous four-out save (sixth on the season) in the Marlins’ victory over the Braves. Fernando Rodney fanned one en route to his sixth save of the year. Chris Perez fanned two in a five-out save effort in the first half of the Dodgers and Twins doubleheader in Minnesota. Kenley Jansen surrendered an earned run on two walks and a hit, but escaped a jam in the bottom of the 12th in the second half of the doubleheader to secure his 11th save. Tommy Hunter locked down his seventh successful save in just one-third of an inning.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Addison Reed	J.J. Putz	Brad Ziegler
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	David Carpenter
Baltimore	Tommy Hunter	Darren O’Day	Brian Matusz
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Edward Mujica
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Justin Grimm	Kyuji Fujikawa
CHI (AL)	Matt Lindstrom	Daniel Webb	Ronald Belisario	Nate Jones
Cincy	Jonathan Broxton	Sam LeCure	J.J. Hoover	Aroldis Chapman
Cleveland	John Axford	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw
Colorado	LaTroy Hawkins	Adam Ottavino	Rex Brothers
Detroit	Joe Nathan	Al Alburquerque	Joba Chamberlain
Houston	Raul Valdes	Chad Qualls	Josh Fields	Jesse Crain
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Aaron Crow
LAA	Joe Smith	Ernesto Frieri	Kevin Jepsen	Dane de la Rosa
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Chris Perez	Brian Wilson
Miami	Steve Cishek	A.J. Ramos	Mike Dunn
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Jim Henderson	Will Smith
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Kyle Farnsworth	Daisuke Matsuzaka	Jose Valverde	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	David Robertson	Shawn Kelley	Adam Warren
Oakland	Luke Gregerson	Sean Doolittle	Jim Johnson
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Antonio Bastardo	Mike Adams
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Justin Wilson	Jason Grilli
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Carlos Martinez	Kevin Siegrist	Jason Motte
SD	Huston Street	Joaquin Benoit	Alex Torres
SF	Sergio Romo	Santiago Casilla	Jeremy Affeldt
Seattle	Fernando Rodney	Danny Farquhar	Tom Wilhelmsen
TB	Grant Balfour	Heath Bell	Joel Peralta
Texas	Joakim Soria	Alexi Ogando	Jason Frasor	Neftali Feliz
Toronto	Sergio Santos	Steve Delabar	Brett Cecil	Casey Janssen
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen

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