Bullpen Report: May 31st, 2012

•J.J. Putz was unavailable for Wednesday night’s game against the San Francisco Giants due to a stiff neck. The Diamondbacks’ closer received treatment prior to and during the early innings of last evening’s contest, but informed manager Kirk Gibson he wasn’t available when his neck didn’t loosen after trying to play catch in the fourth frame. David Hernandez came on in relief of Ian Kennedy with two outs in the eighth for the four-out save opportunity. Hernandez yielded two hits, but held the Giants scoreless to earn his first save of 2012.

In 24 appearances this season, Hernandez has been inducing swinging strikes at a career high 13.5% clip, which indicates his 12.52 K/9 (4.00 K/BB) looks to be real. In addition to the whiffs, solid ratios (1.93 ERA and 1.07 WHIP) make the Dbacks set-up man more than just a handcuff in deeper leagues.

Although Putz indicated he should be fine for Friday’s contest, Hernandez could get the call should there be any setback with his stiff neck.

• New York Yankees’ General Manager, Brian Cashman, expects David Robertson to be out “at least two more weeks” due to the rib cage injury the reliever sustained in early May. Since Robertson landed on the disabled list, Rafael Soriano has earned handshakes in each of his six chances, while fanning six, surrendering just one free pass and one earned run. With Soriano’s experience as a closer and his success thus far manning the ninth, Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman could allow him to continue closing out games and send Robertson back to his eighth inning role upon his return.

• Jose Valverde dished a clean ninth in a non-save situation tonight against the Red Sox. Despite an ugly 1.31 K/BB and a 4.66 ERA (4.92 xFIP), the right-hander has converted his last six save opportunities and is 9-of-11 on the season.

• Jonathan Broxton is another closer whose 1.71 K/BB make your eyes want to throw up — but he continues to get the job done with the game on the line — converting 11 of his last 12 save opportunities. On a side note, manager Ned Yost suggested that since returning from surgery, Broxton has proved “durable enough to go three straight days if needed.”

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: David Hernandez vs. SD

As previously noted, J.J. Putz was unavailable Wednesday evening due to a stiff neck. Should the regular closer be unavailable once again, Hernandez would likely get the nod in a closing situation.
 
Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	Injured
Arizona	J.J. Putz	David Hernandez	Bryan Shaw
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jonny Venters	Eric O’Flaherty
Baltimore	Jim Johnson	Pedro Strop	Matt Lindstrom
Boston	Alfredo Aceves	Franklin Morales	Daniel Bard	Andrew Bailey
Chicago (NL)	James Russell	Shawn Camp	Carlos Marmol
Chicago (AL)	Addison Reed	Hector Santiago	Matt Thornton
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Sean Marshall	Jose Arredondo
Cleveland	Chris Perez	Vinnie Pestano	Tony Sipp
Colorado	Rafael Betancourt	Matt Belisle	Matt Reynolds
Detroit	Jose Valverde	Joaquin Benoit	Octavio Dotel
Houston	Brett Myers	Wilton Lopez	David Carpenter
KC	Jonathan Broxton	Greg Holland	Aaron Crow
LAA	Scott Downs	Ernesto Frieri	Jordan Walden
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Josh Lindblom	Javy Guerra
Miami	Heath Bell	Steve Cishek	Edward Mujica
Milwaukee	John Axford	Francisco Rodriguez	Jose Veras
Minnesota	Matt Capps	Glen Perkins	Alex Burnett
NY (NL)	Frank Francisco	Jon Rauch	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	Rafael Soriano	David Robertson	Boone Logan
Oakland	Brian Fuentes	Ryan Cook	Grant Balfour
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Antonio Bastardo	Chad Qualls
Pittsburgh	Joel Hanrahan	Juan Cruz	Jason Grilli
St. Louis	Jason Motte	Mitchell Boggs	Fernando Salas
SD	Dale Thayer	Andrew Cashner	Luke Gregerson	Huston Street
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Javier Lopez
Seattle	Tom Wilhelmsen	Brandon League	Charlie Furbush
Tampa Bay	Fernando Rodney	Joel Peralta	J.P. Howell	Kyle Farnsworth
Texas	Joe Nathan	Mike Adams	Koji Uehara
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Jason Frasor	Darren Oliver	Sergio Santos
Wash.	Tyler Clippard	Sean Burnett	Henry Rodriguez	Drew Storen

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