Bullpen Report: September 5, 2013

-Earlier today I threw together a list of arms who have both starting and relief pitcher eligibility that you can see here. After a comment in the article and a few mentions on Twitter, I decided I should have included the Orioles’ Kevin Gausman and the Tigers’ Drew Smyly. So here is a quick addendum to said article:

Kevin Gausman | Orioles | 2%

Despite surrendering a couple of earned runs in his most recent trip to the hill, he’s a worth a look in most leagues with a fixed amount of RP and SP slots. Colin noted both Gausman’s call-up and position eligibility here, so I won’t waste much more of your time on this matter.

Drew Smyly | Tigers | 24%

Admittedly, I thought I left the Tigers’ middleman off my initial list because he was owned in too many leagues. However, Martin Perez — at 30% owned — made the list, so this was simply a case of me not following my own rules. Oops. Anywho, Drew Smyly has been nothing short of spectacular this season as he owns a 2.22 ERA (2.43 FIP) and a 1.01 WHIP in 53 appearances. He’s paired five wins with 18 holds and a 26% K% in 69 frames on the hill. He’d be a great addition to your fantasy squad down the stretch, especially if you need position flexibility from a pitcher.

–Jim Johnson needed just twelve pitches from the bump to pocket his 42nd save of the twenty-thirteen campaign. He fanned both Alexei Ramirez and Adam Dunn to start the ninth, then induced a game-ending groundout off the bat of Paul Konerko. For a while there it looked like Johnson may finish the season with more saves than strikeouts, but, it appears as if Johnson didn’t want to be that guy — he’s up to 47 whiffs after tonight’s outing. Johnson trails only Craig Kimbrel (44) — the Major League leader in saves — and is one ahead of soon-to-be Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera (41) for the lead among closers in the American League. Time is running out, but if Johnson can string together eight more saves over the next month, he would eclipse the 50 save mark for the second consecutive season.

–Koji Uehara is good. No, he’s very good. Tonight, he notched his 18th save tonight in an extra-inning Red Sox victory over the Yankees in the Bronx. Uehara induced an Alex Rodriguez pop up, then fanned Lyle Overbay and Ichiro Suzuki to seal the victory for Boston. As Pete Abe noted, the Red Sox closer has allowed no runs on six hits and one walk, while striking out 34 batters in his last 23 outings (25 IP). To get to the save chance, the Sox smacked two hits off Mariano Rivera, leading to an earned run and Mo’s sixth blown save of the season.

Closer Grid:

 

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Heath Bell	David Hernandez	J.J. Putz
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	Scott Downs
Baltimore	Jim Johnson	Tommy Hunter	Francisco Rodriguez
Boston	Koji Uehara	Junichi Tazawa	Craig Breslow	Andrew Bailey
CHI (NL)	Kevin Gregg	Pedro Strop	Blake Parker
CHI (AL)	Addison Reed	Nate Jones	Matt Lindstrom
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	J.J. Hoover	Sam Lecure	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Chris Perez	Joe Smith	Cody Allen
Colorado	Rex Brothers	Matt Belisle	Wilton Lopez	Rafael Betancourt
Detroit	Joaquin Benoit	Jose Veras	Drew Smyly
Houston	Chia-Jen Lo	Josh Fields	Josh Zeid	Jose Cisnero
KC	Greg Holland	Kelvin Herrera	Aaron Crow
LAA	Ernesto Frieri	Dane de la Rosa	Kevin Jepsen	Robert Coello
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Paco Rodriguez	Brian Wilson
Miami	Steve Cishek	Mike Dunn	Chad Qualls
Milwaukee	Jim Henderson	Brandon Kintzler	Michael Gonzalez
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	LaTroy Hawkins	David Aardsma	Scott Rice	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	Mariano Rivera	David Robertson	Shawn Kelley
Oakland	Grant Balfour	Ryan Cook	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Justin De Fratus	Jake Diekman	Mike Adams
Pittsburgh	Jason Grilli	Mark Melancon	Justin Wilson
St. Louis	Edward Mujica	Trevor Rosenthal	John Axford	Jason Motte
SD	Huston Street	Luke Gregerson	Dale Thayer
SF	Sergio Romo	Jeremy Affeldt	Santiago Casilla
Seattle	Danny Farquhar	Yoervis Medina	Tom Wilhelmsen
TB	Fernando Rodney	Joel Peralta	Jake McGee	Jesse Crain
Texas	Joe Nathan	Tanner Scheppers	Jason Frasor
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Steve Delabar	Sergio Santos
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen

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