Bullpen Report: September 6, 2014

Some quick news and notes from Friday’s games:

On Thursday I noted that the Red Sox were considering shutting down Koji Uehara, but I was hesitant to make the change in the grid because I was waiting to hear the same from additional sources. At this point, it’s clear that Uehara has been stripped of his ninth-inning role, leaving Edward Mujica to take over. Mujica is 3-of-4 in save chances this season with a 12% K-BB% and a 4.05 ERA, which isn’t exactly pretty. But, he’s been named the closer for the time being and is available in 81% of Yahoo! leagues.

To put it lightly, Casey Janssen struggled again last night in the save opportunity for the Blue Jays. Janssen surrendered three runs on five hits, blew his fifth save and took his third loss of the season. That’s seven earned runs allowed for the right-hander in his last six outings. Brett Cecil or Aaron Sanchez could get ninth-inning looks going forward depending on matchups should Janssen be formally pulled from that role.

Fernando Rodney (42), Kenley Jansen (40), Jonathan Papelbon (34) and Jake McGee (16) each recorded saves last evening.

Quick Hitters: Tony Sipp notched his third save of the season for the Astros in a 4-3 victory over the Athletics. Sipp needed 29 pitches — 21 of which went for strikes — in a two-inning effort with four strikeouts to seal the deal. Huston Street surrendered two earned runs on two hits and two walks in the bottom of the ninth to the Twinkies to pick up his second blown save of the year. The Angels picked up a run in the top of the tenth allowing Kevin Jepsen to take the hill in the home half of the tenth with a save on the line. Jepsen dished a clean frame on 15 pitches to lock down his second save of the year. Street has now appeared in two consecutive games and could be a candidate to get some rest tonight after throwing 47 pitches in the last two days. Joe Smith and Kevin Jepsen have been to the bump in each of the past two as well, but Smith has thrown the fewest pitches, meaning I would give him a look if you’re streaming relievers. Wade Davis recorded his first save of the season last night. He’s been one of the most dominant relievers this year with an 8-2 record, a 0.72 ERA (1.33 FIP) and a 29.6% K-BB%.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Addison Reed	Brad Ziegler	Oliver Perez
Atlanta	Craig Kimbrel	Jordan Walden	David Carpenter	Shae Simmons
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Tommy Hunter	Andrew Miller
Boston	Edward Mujica	Junichi Tazawa	Koji Uehara
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Neil Ramirez	Kyuji Fujikawa
CHI (AL)	Jacob Petricka	Zach Putnam	Matt Lindstom
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	Sam LeCure	Manny Parra	Sean Marshall
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Scott Atchison
Colorado	LaTroy Hawkins	Adam Ottavino	Rex Brothers
Detroit	Joe Nathan	Joba Chamberlain	Al Alburquerque	Joakim Soria
Houston	Chad Qualls	Tony Sipp	Josh Fields
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Jason Frasor
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Jason Grilli
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Brian Wilson	Brandon League
Miami	Steve Cishek	Bryan Morris	A.J. Ramos
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Jonathan Broxton	Brandon Kintzler	Jim Henderson
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey Fien
NY (NL)	Jenrry Mejia	Jeurys Familia	Vic Black	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	David Robertson	Dellin Betances	Adam Warren
Oakland	Eric O’Flaherty	Luke Gregerson	Dan Otero	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Jonathan Papelbon	Ken Giles	Jake Diekman	Mike Adams
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Tony Watson	Jared Hughes
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Pat Neshek	Seth Maness	Jason Motte
SD	Kevin Quackenbush	Dale Thayer	Nick Vincent	Joaquin Benoit
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Jeremy Affeldt
Seattle	Fernando Rodney	Danny Farquhar	Dominic Leone
TB	Jake McGee	Brad Boxberger	Grant Balfour
Texas	Neftali Feliz	Neal Cotts	Shawn Tolleson
Toronto	Casey Janssen	Aaron Sanchez	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Rafael Soriano	Tyler Clippard	Drew Storen

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