Bullpen Report: Sunday, July 12, 2015
It’s time to pull the trigger on picking up Jim Johnson in your shallow league. He’s probably long gone in your deeper leagues. There was a strong chance that he’d be closing games for the Braves as the season went on, but most thought that it would be as a result of a floundering Braves team becoming sellers at the deadline and getting what they could for Jason Grilli. Unfortunately, one of 2015’s top closers(sixth in saves, tenth in WAR amongst qualifying relievers) is going to miss the rest of the season after rupturing his Achilles Saturday afternoon in Denver. The Braves bullpen has seen plenty of turnover this year, as they’ve had 24 pitchers come out of the bullpen. 24!!!! Mark Bradley has a good look at Arodys Vizcaino and posits that it may be his time to get a shot at closing. He’s on the grid behind Johnson for now and David Aardsma slots back in to the third spot. Mike Foltynewicz is a candidate as well, but Aardsma has the track record that managers tend to lean towards, so until Folty is seeing seventh and eighth inning leads on the reg, he’ll be just on the cusp for now.
Neftali Feliz got his feet wet as a member of the Detroit Tigers on Saturday, pitching a scoreless eighth and striking out one. The Tigers were down by four on the road when he got the call and he’ll join the no-defined-role bullpen. PITCHf/x had him at 98. He struck out Miguel Sano with a high 98 mph heater, that’s about 4 mph harder than he’s been at on the year thus far. Definitely keep an eye on him and see if Brad Ausmus starts to give him some higher-leverage work.
Santiago Casilla got the call in the ninth for his 23rd save of the year, and it appears I was foolish for thinking that perhaps the closer role was Romo’s to lose after Casilla was given a few days of rest after an ugly outing. http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/?p=75283&preview=true After Bruce Bochy’s comments in early July, the grid turned yellow, but it’s back to green. It looks like Casilla is still the man in the pen at the end of games.
Notes From Sunday: Jeurys Familia won the saves category single-handedly this week for his owners, notching five of them in the past seven days. It’s probably a good thing for the Mets that he’s being passed over for the All-Star Game, as he could use the days off. He’s up to 27 saves for the year now. Jenrry Mejia got into his first game of the season, retiring the only hitter he saw for his first hold. Carter Capps and A.J. Ramos continued their dominating ways, as they each pitched perfect innings with a pair of strikeouts apiece. With Brad Boxberger grabbing all three saves this weekend, I’m changing the Rays grid back to green. He’s looking solid in the closer’s role for now, but as we’ve seen this year in Tampa, that can change quickly. Drew Storen earned a four-pitch save on Sunday, his 27th of the year, striking out the only hitter he faced. Greg Holland picked up his 19th save of the year, walking one Blue Jay and striking out another. Craig Kimbrel will go into the break with his 23rd save tucked under his belt, because that’s where you keep saves. There have been trade rumblings out of San Diego, so keep an eye on Joaquin Benoit and Brendan Maurer on the waiver wires if he gets moved. Benoit started the eighth after Maurer retired one batter in the seventh. Kimbrel came on after Benoit retired two and allowed two to reach. Based on the usage, I’d have Benoit over Maurer, but wouldn’t be surprised if Maurer got a crack if Kimbrel goes. He struck out one in his 1.3 innings, working around three hits to get the job done. Jeremy Jeffress and Will Smith were unable to get the lead to Francisco Rodriguez, and Kenley Jansen took advantage for his 16th save. Pedro Baez pitched a perfect eighth and nabbed the win.
Notes From Saturday: Casey Janssen had a perfect eighth with two strikeouts, bouncing back from his recent rough patch. Drew Storen wrapped it up for his 26th save. After linking to an article Friday extolling Shawn Tolleson’s 2015 greatness, of course he gives up five hits and three runs in two-thirds of an inning, blowing the Rangers two-run lead over the Padres. No, the Bullpen Report doesn’t have magical powers, it was merely a coincidence. That allowed Craig Kimbrel to lock it down in the ninth, striking out the side for his 22nd save. Sergio Romo came into the game with a four-run lead, and when he struggled, alternating between groundouts and doubles, Bruce Bochy went to Santiago Casilla for another one-out save, the fifth of his 22 that have only required one out. Everyone in the Pittsburgh pen aside from Mark Melancon saw action on Saturday in a 14 inning affair. Strange for the home team closer to not see action in an extra-inning affair. He did throw 23 pitches on Friday, and maybe Clint Hurdle was trying to keep someone fresh for Sunday. Jeurys Familia(26), Brad Boxberger(22), Tyler Clippard(17) and Koji Uehara(22) all had saves Saturday.
Closer Grid:
[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]
Darren contributes to RotoGraphs when he isn’t watching the Braves or shoveling snow. Follow him on Twitter @shinesie.
In a 12-team H2H league with the following pitching categories: IP / W / QS / K/9 / K/BB / ERA / WHIP / HR / Net SV + HLDs
Would you drop any of the following to pick up Jim Johnson?
Soria, O’Day, Capps, KRod, Perkins
In a HLDs league, I still see Closers as more valuable than setup men since you can still get HLDs off of 7th inning setup men like Kelvin Herrera. So I wouldn’t drop a closer to pick up a closer.
So that leaves the decision between O’Day and Capps. Capps gives you a ton of Ks from the RP position, he’s like a Betances.
I guess, I would drop O’Day for Jim Johnson but we wary that Johnson may be traded himself before the deadline if the Braves decide to sell. So keep an eye out the Braves and see if they start winning games or not between now and the end of the month.