Bullpen Report: May 8, 2017

• In spite of the Bizarro World the Mets are currently living in, they had a walk-off win today against the Giants. Fernando Salas and Jerry Blevins combined to throw a scoreless seventh leading to Addison Reed in the eighth and Jeurys Familia in the ninth, who received the vulture win for his first victory of the year. We had Jerry Blevins as the third in line on the chart, and for good measure as he’s now pitching toa 0.79/1.32/2.35 ERA/FIP/xFIP pitching line but I feel Hansel Robles would be closer to saves if something were to happen to both Familia and Reed. Thankfully that’s not the case as the back of the Mets bullpen might be the most or only reliable thing on the team right now. Jeurys Familia was a bit shaky immediately upon his return but he’s looking smoother now and this situation is certainly green.

• As you probably recall Roberto Osuna started the year on the DL and showed a bit of rust earlier this season. Well, those concerns can now be put to bed as Osuna is cruising. Osuna still has an inflated ERA at 3.75 but he also has a 15/1 K/BB in 12 innings pitched and after getting his fifth save tonight, is looking more and more like a young closer knocking on the door to first tiersville. Toronto is in the midst of a down year and in theory a piece like Osuna could command a ransom at the deadline. I’m jumping the gun on both Toronto hitting reset and them deciding to trade Osuna but it’s an interesting idea.

• With Zach Britton back on the shelf (sigh) Brad Brach continued his ninth inning duties, closing his eighth door on the season. He allowed three baserunners and a run in the process but they can’t all be pretty. The shame about Britton is that it’s a reoccurring injury (strained left forearm) and although I’m no doctor I feel that can’t be a great sign. In the meantime, expect Brach to remain in the ninth and provide solid saves and ratios.

• No save chance in Kansas City but it’s nice to see Matt Strahm display some signs of life. He gave up a homer to Colby Rasmus but also struck out four batters in 1.2 innings, showing some of his swing and miss stuff. This year has had more downs than ups for Strahm considering he entered the year as a compelling strikeouts and ratio helper before collapsing early and getting sent down to Omaha. If he’s able to right the ship he could get back to that level and the grid again. He’s not there yet, as Joakim Soria and Peter Moylan are ahead but he’s been more effective since he was recalled and is worth keeping an eye on deep leagues.

• The Yankees continued there impressive start putting up a ten spot in Cincinnati but of more interest to the Bullpen Report was a meaningless inning for the Reds. Wandy Peralta threw a scoreless and unimportant ninth but it’s time he gets some more notice around here. Jeff Sullivan made note of him earlier today and it’s worth checking out. After tonight’s outing, Peralta  has a 1.32/2.05/1.94 pitching line with 19 strikeouts against four walks in 13.2 innings pitched. The Reds have several good-to-great relievers and Peralta is certainly one of them. Drew Storen, who we currently have on the grid, allowed two runs in one inning of work tonight and although I’m not going to change anytihng, if Peralta keeps this up this production he’ll be moving on up quickly. It’s also worth noting that Peralta could be more of a multi-inning reliever for the Reds, which would put him further away from future saves but actually be better for fantasy teams with more volume/innings pitched.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Fernando Rodney	JJ Hoover	Jorge de la Rosa
Atlanta	Jim Johnson	Arodys Vizcaino	Jose Ramirez	Mauricio Cabrera
Baltimore	Brad Brach	Darren O’Day	Mychal Givens	Zach Britton
Boston	Craig Kimbrel	Matt Barnes	Heath Hembree	Carson Smith
CHI (NL)	Wade Davis	Hector Rondon	Koji Uehara
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Tommy Kahnle	Anthony Swarzak	Nate Jones
Cincy	Raisel Iglesias	Michael Lorenzen	Drew Storen
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Andrew Miller	Bryan Shaw
Colorado	Greg Holland	Adam Ottavino	Jake McGee	Mike Dunn
Detroit	Francisco Rodriguez	Justin Wilson	Shane Greene
Houston	Ken Giles	Luke Gregerson	Will Harris
KC	Kelvin Herrera	Joakim Soria	Peter Moylan
LAA	Bud Norris	Blake Parker	David Hernandez	Cam Bedrosian
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Pedro Baez	Luis Avilan
Miami	A.J. Ramos	Brad Ziegler	Kyle Barraclough
Milwaukee	Neftali Feliz	Corey Knebel	Jacob Barnes
Minnesota	Brandon Kintzler	Matt Belisle	Taylor Rogers	Glen Perkins
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Addison Reed	Hansel Robles
NY (AL)	Aroldis Chapman	Dellin Betances	Tyler Clippard
Oakland	Santiago Casilla	Ryan Madson	Ryan Dull	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Hector Neris	Joaquin Benoit	Jeanmar Gomez
Pittsburgh	Tony Watson	Felipe Rivero	Daniel Hudson
St. Louis	Seung Hwan Oh	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist
SD	Brandon Maurer	Ryan Buchter	Brad Hand	Carter Capps
SF	Mark Melancon	Derek Law	Hunter Strickland
Seattle	Edwin Diaz	Nick Vincent	Tony Zych	Steve Cishek
TB	Alex Colome	Danny Farquhar	Austin Pruitt	Brad Boxberger
Texas	Matt Bush	Jeremy Jeffress	Jose Leclerc
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Joe Smith	Jason Grillih
Wash.	Matt Albers	Enny Romero	Blake Treinen	Shawn Kelley

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