Bullpen Report: May 18, 2016
• The Shawn Tolleson ride is over (at least, for now). One night after giving up a walk-off granny to Khris Davis, the Rangers righty was relieved of his ninth inning duties. He hasn’t been quite as bad as the 9+ ERA would indicate (.351 BABIP with a near-career norm LD%), but the walks are up and the whiffs are (way) down. Neither are a good combination. Unfortunately for Tolleson, this may not be a temporary demotion, either. Sam Dyson takes over the gig and has one of the most lethal sinkers in the game. He also has seen a drop in K% in 2016 but you can get away with that when you are getting groundballs on 70% of those put in play against you. Obviously Dyson is a must-own across the board, although he was likely gone in the majority of leagues where saves are at a premium long ago. If you’re a Tolleson owner — first, sorry — but I’d try and spin him as a “just-taking-a-break-closer” to a less suspecting owner — I don’t think he’s getting the saves back anytime soon.
• Jumbo Diaz is back and he’s back big! Well, he’s back at least. After posting a 15/2 K/BB over 10 innings at Triple-A, the Reds figured “hey, can’t be any worse than what we have going on right now.” Diaz got into today’s game and was far from lights out, however, allowing a run over an 1.1 innings of work. Of course, the Cincy bullpen did what the Cincy bullpen does, with Tony Cingrani taking the BS after giving up a 2-run, game-tying home run to Rajai Davis (of all folks). This bullpen continues to be a shade of a mix of red and black — Ross Ohlendorf did toss a scoreless eighth today and will jump back to the top of the grid as “most likely to maybe get a chance to blow the next save.” Given Diaz’s peripherals (2.84 SIERA) last year (and in the minors this year), I think he has a legitimate shot to garner saves in this pen. But, you know… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
• Liam Hendriks (deleted stuff) remains hurt.
• Quick hits: Jeremy Jeffress blew a save for the first time in 2016. It was bound to happen and the fact that it happened against the Cubs makes it all the less worrisome. Jeanmar Gomez keeps trucking along. Sure the high-3.00s DIPS-predictors aren’t ideal, but he’s just good enough to keep some form of grasp on the closer role in Philly. Dan Otero picked up a scab save in late innings against the aforementioned dumpster fire Reds. He has a sub-3.00 SIERA on the young season, so we’ll sneak him onto the grid for now, but Cody Allen remains the guy to own here. Brad Boxberger made his second rehab appearance tonight. If I was more sure he’d take over the ninth inning right away, I’d flip the Tampa Bay pen to red, but Alex Colome has been pretty damn good so far. Keep both owned until Boxy is back in the bigs and we get a better feel here.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
There are few things Colin loves more in life than a pitcher with a single-digit BB%. Find him on Twitter @soxczar.
Liam Hendriks is out for the first able future. Just, FYI
Welp, not sure how I missed that. Elbows suck.
BLOWN elbows suck :(. Without elbows, they wouldn’t be able to pitch!…R.A. Dickey aside.
Do you mean “foreseeable future”?
Foreseeable*
Didn’t cash already come out and say that Boxberger gets the Closer job when he comes back?
Yes. I own Colome, and while I anticipate Boxberger being the closer immediately upon his return, I am going to hold onto Colome for at least a week or two because with how well he has pitched, I’d have to imagine Boxberger is going to have a very short leash.
Not to mention possible setbacks, or even plain old ineffectiveness. Both are pretty common for relievers coming off injury.
Oakland is green, they came out and made an announcement this week I believe.
Same with ATL – Vizcaino is getting all of the (infrequent) save chances
Atlanta might only be yellow because manager Fredi Gonzalez has publicly committed to using Vizcaino “to face the tough part of the order” (http://m.braves.mlb.com/news/article/170482202/braves-jason-grilli-stung-by-bad-luck-vs-nats), whether that’s in the 9th in a save situation or earlier in the game. Granted, he said that a while ago, but Vizcaino might not get every save just because a higher leverage inning comes along earlier than the 9th.
Ross Ohlendorf last 30 days:
13.0 IP, 1 W, 0 SV, 14 K, 1 HLD, 2.77 ERA, 0.92 WHIP. Actually pitching quite well.
Yeah, Colin said he was going to flip them, but then forgot to.
Yup, that was my bad. Fixed now. Although, as I’ve said a lot this year, not sure the Cincy bullpen is where I’d be spending a lot of my time unless I was totally fine punting rates for a handful of scab saves.
Any speculation on the Houston bullpen? Gregerson was right back out there last night, but he’s been far from solid this year. Any chance Will Harris seizes the reins at some point?
Watching the local Houston broadcast last night, local announcers certainly seemed to think that Gregerson was in some danger and that Harris is the logical candidate to replace him. So there is certainly some chance. How much of a chance depends on Gregerson and how well Giles is pitching if/when there is a need to make a change.
I think Felipe Rivero has moved into the First Chair in Washington, as he has 4 holds since May 3 and has been used mostly in the 7th or 8th inning(along with Shawn Kelley), whereas Blake Treinen has not been used as much in the 7th/8th inning.