Bullpen Report: Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Mariners have ended the Fernando Rodney Experience. An All Star closer who led the league in saves in 2014 with 48 has been designated for assignment. Tom Wilhelmsen will move in behind Carson Smith with Edgar Olmos slotting in because who else? Smith had setup duties on Sunday, and Wilhelmsen pitched the ninth for his third save. Lloyd McClendon wanted to give Smith a lower-leverage chance just as a break. He only needed ten pitches to retire four White Sox. Smith still has the closer seat, and I don’t take this as a sign that Wilhelmsen is moving in.

Cody Allen saved his third game of the series on Sunday and 26th on the season. He struck out three Yankees in his 1.3 innings. After not giving up a run since July 7, Dellin Betances gave up a run for his second consecutive outing and was tagged with his third loss.

Junichi Tazawa gave up six hits in his inning of work on Sunday. He also walked a guy, and gave up four runs, allowing the Royals to overtake the Red Sox after building up a two-run lead. Wade Davis pitched the ninth for his 11th save of the year.

Glen Perkins pitched Sunday, after Paul Molitor said that Tuesday would be the earliest that he’d see action for the Twins. He worked around a pair of hits and struck out one in the eleventh inning in Baltimore. Tommy Milone pitched the bottom of the twelfth and grabbed his first career save, keeping pace with Kyle Lohse. Zach Britton struck out two in the ninth, but also gave up a trio of hits, allowing the Twins to tie it, sending the affair to extras. Trevor May makes his way on to the grid, supplanting Casey Fien, with Perkins heading back to the closer spot. The Twins go from red to yellow, but not green, due to Perkins ailing neck. Jepsen would be a good add.

Alex Colome pitched two dynamite innings for the Rays Saturday, striking out two and not allowing a baserunner. He got the win when the Rays pushed across two in the top of the ninth, and he was left in to close it out. For the A’s, Pat Venditte came on to start the ninth with a one-run lead, and was relieved by Drew Pomeranz, who was unable to hold the lead, giving up a two-run double to Asdrubal Cabrera. Sean Doolittle was activated before the game by the A’s, but he didn’t see action. Fernando Rodriguez or Drew Pomeranz or even Pat Venditte could see save chances, and I can see Doolittle getting the job. He got his feet wet Sunday afternoon, but he was wearing his shoes, and now they’re ruined. He threw 12 of 23 pitches for strikes, walked two, surrendered a hit and a pair of earned runs. He topped 93 mph, which is a couple ticks below his usual, but above what he was hitting in his short May stint. I’m putting him on the grid in place of Evan Scribner, but watch close and see if he moves up this week. Right now the A’s bullpen is anyone’s guess.

Notes from Saturday: Ken Giles was in line for his ninth save after A.J. Ramos was unable to close the door on the Phillies, giving up two runs on three hits and a walk. Two of the three hits were home runs, and those are pretty much the worst kind of hit to give up. Hector Rondon(23), Kevin Jepsen(7), Daniel Hudson(2), Greg Holland(28), Luke Gregerson(24) and David Robertson(25) all saved games.

Sunday notes: Kenley Jansen couldn’t hold on to the lead for the Dodgers Sunday afternoon, and Chris Hatcher couldn’t keep it tied in the tenth, allowing a game-winning homer to Jason Castro. Luke Gregerson pitched the top of the tenth and was rewarded with his seventh win. Shawn Tolleson(25) and Ken Giles(10) also grabbed saves. The Rockies DFA’d Rafael Betancourt and sent Justin Miller down to AAA, meaning that Scott Oberg sees the grid behind John Axford and Tommy Kahnle’s hair.

Closer Grid:

	Closer	First	Second	DL/Minors
Arizona	Brad Ziegler	Daniel Hudson	Addison Reed
Atlanta	Arodys Vizcaino	David Aardsma	Andrew McKirahan	Jason Grilli
Baltimore	Zach Britton	Darren O’Day	Brad Brach
Boston	Junichi Tazawa	Jean Machi	Alexi Ogando	Koji Uehara
CHI (NL)	Hector Rondon	Pedro Strop	Tommy Hunter	Rafael Soriano
CHI (AL)	David Robertson	Jacob Petricka	Zach Putnam
Cincy	Aroldis Chapman	J.J. Hoover	Ryan Mattheus
Cleveland	Cody Allen	Bryan Shaw	Zach McAllister
Colorado	John Axford	Tommy Kahnle	Scott Oberg
Detroit	Bruce Rondon	Alex Wilson	Al Albuerquerque	Joe Nathan
Houston	Luke Gregerson	Pat Neshek	Chad Qualls
KC	Greg Holland	Wade Davis	Kelvin Herrera
LAA	Huston Street	Joe Smith	Fernando Salas
LAD	Kenley Jansen	Jim Johnson	Pedro Baez
Miami	A.J. Ramos	Mike Dunn	Bryan Morris	Carter Capps
Milwaukee	Francisco Rodriguez	Will Smith	Jeremy Jeffress
Minnesota	Glen Perkins	Kevin Jepsen	Trevor May
NY (NL)	Jeurys Familia	Tyler Clippard	Carlos Torres	Bobby Parnell
NY (AL)	Andrew Miller	Dellin Betances	Justin Wilson
Oakland	Drew Pomeranz	Fernando Rodriguez	Sean Doolittle
Philly	Ken Giles	Luis Garcia	Jeanmar Gomez
Pittsburgh	Mark Melancon	Joakim Soria	Tony Watson
St. Louis	Trevor Rosenthal	Kevin Siegrist	Steve Cishek	Jordan Walden
SD	Craig Kimbrel	Joaquin Benoit	Shawn Kelley	Brendan Maurer
SF	Santiago Casilla	Sergio Romo	Hunter Strickland
Seattle	Carson Smith	Tom Wilhelmsen	Edgar Olmos
TB	Brad Boxberger	Steve Geltz	Alex Colome	Jake McGee
Texas	Shawn Tolleson	Jake Diekman	Sam Dyson	Tanner Scheppers
Toronto	Roberto Osuna	Aaron Sanchez	Brett Cecil
Wash.	Jonathan Papelbon	Drew Storen	Casey Janssen

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