Bullpen Report: September 21, 2014
• As Dan mentioned last night, Edward Mujica is sticking at closer for the Red Sox for the remainder of the season, and recorded his eighth save of the year today. Mujica won’t rack up the strikeouts for the Red Sox or your fantasy team but for the season’s final weeks, he’ll be the guy in the ninth in Boston and could net your team a few more saves.
• Rafael Soriano converted his 32nd save today against the Marlins, but the first since September 5th. Drew Storen had previously thrown in the last three games so he was unavailable and should remain closer from here on out for the Nationals. Soriano wasn’t perfect, as he gave up a run in today’s outing, but he should still be a fixture in the back of the Nationals pen, even if he’s not being called on for saves consistently anymore.
• With Mark Melancon unavailable, the Pirates turned to Tony Watson for the save, his first of the season. Nobody was doubting the pecking order in Pittsburgh, but this certainly cements Watson’s primary setup role and handcuff to Melancon for the rest of 2014, and depending on how the offseason shakes out, possibly 2015 as well.
• Tell me if you heard this one before, Wade Davis struck out two for a perfect eighth inning and Greg Holland recorded the save (43) after throwing a perfect ninth of his own, striking out two as well. Regardless of saves and or holds, Holland and Davis have been fantastic all season and will enter 2015 as two of the top RP options in fantasy baseball. We’ve run out of ways to gush about Davis but it’s worth noting that after today’s outing he lowered his ERA to 0.91 and now has 103 strikeouts in 69 innings against just 22 walks. Putting up results like that is how you get an ERA under 1.00 with a 1.23 FIP.
• Neftali Feliz struck out the side for his 11th save. He looked like his old bad self, averaging 96 mph on his fastball and touching 98. I can’t say if the Rangers Front Office will decide to get any closing help for the team next year, but Feliz is certainly confident that no help is needed and that he is “100 percent.”
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
When he's not focusing on every team's bullpen situation, Ben can be found blogging at Ben's Baseball Bias and on Twitter @BensBias
Petricka over Putnam still? Even considering Putnam has converted the last two for them?