Bullpen Report: May 23, 2017

Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday but at least I didn’t miss much. Mark Melancon recorded a save, his ninth on the year and the third since his return from the DL. Of more interest regarding the Giants and Melancon would be the Giants being sellers at the deadline. They just signed Melancon to a deal this offseason but if they hit the reset button, a team in need of relief help could use his services. Washington traded for Melancon last year and although they elected to let him walk, maybe they make a move for him again. In other Monday news, Ken Giles saved his 12th game securing the win for Chris Devenski who threw 2.2 scoreless for Houston. Jim Johnson (9), Bud Norris (9) and Dellin Betances (3) all notched saves as well.

Onto Tuesday…

• Carl Edwards Jr. has been seeing the eighth inning of late and I’m going to bump him up to the grid. The Cubs may not have an obvious set up man but they have plenty of solid options with Hector Rondon and Koji Uehara back there along with Edwards. Uehara is still effective with a 3.45/2.14/3.60 ERA/FIP/xFIP line, but a 42 year old with a 17.5% HR/FB% isn’t the most reliable option, so I’ve moved him off of the grid. It’s possible, and maybe even likely, that the Cubs pick up an additional reliever at the deadline that replaces Rondon and Edwards in the pecking order, but for now we’re going with Edwards and Rondon behind Wade Davis.

• It’s a slow bullpen night so I’ll lead you to Ben Kaspick’s piece published earlier today where he mentions three relievers to look at: James Hoyt, Joe Smith, and Josh Fields. Joe Smith was already on our grid, having leapfrogged Jason Grilli for the main setup spot in Toronto. Josh Fields has been pitching quite well in the back of the pen for the Dodgers, and I’ve added him in place of Luis Avilan. Kaspick appropriately mentions the bizarre usage of Fields in LA and Avilan has been pitching quite well this year but I could see the right handed Fields sneaking into more meaningful innings on a permanent basis if someone were to get hurt before the lefty Avilan. As a whole, the entire Dodgers pen has been good all year putting up the third most WAR and the second best FIP as a unit. Whereas other contending teams might be looking at a trade deadline relief upgrade, the Dodgers could stay put.

The last guy to mention is James Hoyt. I won’t say much as Ben touched on him already but I’ll repeat that AJ Hinch said Hoyt could see higher leveraged innings, and there is also his 1.80/0.13/0.99 insane pitching line with a 54.5% groundball percentage. If anything he’s been a bit unlucky too, having a .455 BABIP. We still have Will Harris and Luke Gregerson on the grid but Hoyt threw a scoreless ninth today with a four-run lead. I’m not quite ready to make a change in the pecking order behind Giles, but one could be imminent.

• Bryan Shaw blew the lead for Cleveland tonight but Andrew Miller came in to get the last out of the seventh and finished the eighth, picking up the win in the process. Cody Allen closed the game for his 14th save. After the World Series, it should be no surprise to see Miller and Allen dominate the late innings, but they have been damn impressive nonetheless. Andrew Miller lowered his ERA to 0.40 on the year and has 31 strikeouts against just five walks in 22.1 innings on the year. Meanwhile Cody Allen has a comparatively horrendous 1.45 ERA and 30 strikeouts against eight walks in 18.2 innings.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
ARI	Fernando Rodney	JJ Hoover	Jorge de la Rosa
ATL	Jim Johnson	Arodys Vizcaino	Jose Ramirez
BAL	Brad Brach	Darren O’Day	Mychal Givens	Zach Britton
BOS	Craig Kimbrel	Matt Barnes	Heath Hembree	Carson Smith
CHC	Wade Davis	Carl Edwards Jr.	Hector Rondon
CWS	David Robertson	Tommy Kahnle	Anthony Swarzak	Nate Jones
CIN	Raisel Iglesias	Michael Lorenzen	Drew Storen
CLE	Cody Allen	Andrew Miller	Bryan Shaw
COL	Greg Holland	Adam Ottavino	Jake McGee
DET	Justin Wilson	Alex Wilson	Francisco Rodriguez
HOU	Ken Giles	Luke Gregerson	Will Harris
KC	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Mike Minor
LAA	Bud Norris	David Hernandez	Blake Parker	Cam Bedrosian
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Pedro Baez	Josh Fieldsn
MIA	A.J. Ramos	David Phelps	Kyle Barraclough
MIL	Corey Knebel	Jacob Barnes	Neftali Feliz
MIN	Brandon Kintzler	Matt Belisle	Taylor Rogers	Glen Perkins
NYM	Addison Reed	Hansel Robles	Fernando Salas	Jeurys Familia
NYY	Dellin Betances	Tyler Clippard	Adam Warren	Aroldis Chapman
OAK	Santiago Casilla	Ryan Madson	Liam Hendriks	Sean Doolittle
PHI	Hector Neris	Joaquin Benoit	Pat Neshek
PIT	Tony Watson	Felipe Rivero	Daniel Hudson
STL	Seung Hwan Oh	Trevor Rosenthal	Matt Bowman
SD	Brandon Maurer	Brad Hand	Ryan Buchter	Carter Capps
SF	Mark Melancon	Derek Law	Hunter Strickland
SEA	James Pazos	Tony Zych	Edwin Diaz
TB	Alex Colome	Danny Farquhar	Chase Whitley	Brad Boxberger
TEX	Matt Bush	Keone Kela	Jeremy Jeffress	Jose Leclerc
TOR	Roberto Osuna	Joe Smith	Jason Grilli
WSH	Koda Glover	Shawn Kelley	Matt Albers

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