Bullpen Report: September 8, 2014

• No save situation for the Tigers today but Joe Nathan, who has been struggling with elbow tenderness of late, threw a scoreless ninth inning.  Joakim Soria threw a simulated game today and when he returns, he might be used as the 7th-inning option. Joba Chamberlain pitched the eighth allowing an earned run in the process but looks secure as the main setup option behind Nathan, even when Soria is back.

• The addition of Huston Street and Joe Smith’s performance this season has kept Jason Grilli away from saves in LA, but he’s quietly been pretty impressive of late. After a scoreless appearance today, Grilli has a 2.20 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 28.2 innings pitched for the Angels this year. Grilli has put some of his early season issues in Pittsburgh behind him and although he won’t see the ninth, he’s become a useful ratio and stirkeout helper for those in deep leagues, and a source of holds for the Angels and fantasy owners

• Drew Storen struck out the side for his third save of the season in relief of the recently demoted Rafael Soriano. It’s been a small sample, but Drew Storen has looked good in the role and could stay there for a little while. Soriano threw a bullpen today and is expected to be available for the Nationals soon. However, there’s no guarantee that he gains his familiar role upon his return and I would actually pick Storen’s save totals from here on out over Soriano’s output.

• Quick hits: LaTroy Hawkins earned his third loss and blown save this season after Curtis Granderson tripled in the tying run before winning the game on a sacrifice fly. Hawkins has held on to the job thus far, and in spite of today’s outing, he should continue receiving save opportunities for the remainder of the year. Mark Melancon threw a perfect ninth for save number 27 as his ERA (2.03)  inches closer to falling under 2.00 for the second year in a row.

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	Ryan Cook	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.	Drew Storen	Tyler Clippard	Rafael Soriano

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