Bullpen Report: Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Ken Giles owners, rejoice!!!! Drew Storen owners, I’m so sorry. Who saw that coming? As you all know by now, Jonathan Papelbon has agreed to be traded to the Nationals, but one of his conditions was that he was guaranteed to be the closer, bumping Drew Storen to a setup role. Don’t hastily drop Storen as he’ll still help your ratios, grab you holds and still grab the odd save. Giles earned his first save of the season for the Phillies with a scoreless ninth in Toronto. Jeanmar Gomez moves into the back end of the Phillies grid.
Edward Mujica will be slotted into the closer role in Oakland. The last couple of nights we’ve suggested that Fernando Rodriguez would be the guy, but the A’s are going with the guy with the experience. The grid has been updated accordingly.
Neftali Feliz had an atrocious line in Tampa tonight, giving up five runs and only retiring one Ray, making my decision to even place him on the grid in the first place look pretty foolish. In the Tigers roleless bullpen, it’s anyone’s guess as to who is third on the grid behind Al Alburquerque. I like Bruce Rondon ahead of guys like Blaine Hardy, Ian Krol, and Alex Wilson, even though he gave up a pair of runs on Monday. Behind Joakim Soria, the pickings are quite slim.
There was some ugliness on the Wrigley mound in the late innings on Monday. Pedro Strop and Hector Rondon put up scoreless frames, handing a 7-4 lead to Jason Motte in the ninth. After Motte gave up a homer, a single, and a double, Joe Maddon had seen enough and called on Rafael Soriano with the tying run at second with no outs. In what turned out to be his last at bat as a Rockie, Troy Tulowitzki grounded out to bring in a run, followed by a Carlos Gonzalez homer to give the lead to the Rockies. What this does to the back of the Cubs pen is anyone’s guess. Over the weekend, Maddon said he has no problem at all using a bullpen-by-committee approach, and actually prefers it. I still have Motte sitting in closer chair, with Rondon and Soriano next in line. Strop could push Soriano out and Rondon will keep the heat on Motte. For the Rockies, John Axford couldn’t hold the lead and gave up a walk-off homer to Kris Bryant. He’s in no danger of losing his grip on the closer role. A few changes to the Rockies grid, with LaTroy Hawkins going to Toronto, and Tommy Kahnle sliding into his spot.
Trevor Rosenthal pitched a perfect ninth for the save on Monday in his first appearance since Thursday, notching his 31st save. Randy Choate and Kevin Siegrist picked up saves over the weekend, as it appears that Mike Matheny is going to do all he can to ensure that Rosenthal is fresh for October. Siegrist did get the eighth inning ahead of Steve Cishek, allowing him to face Jay Bruce and flip Brayan Pena to the right side.
Of Note: Carson Smith entered in the top of the tenth inning Monday night and didn’t fare well. He walked Paul Goldschmidt and Aaron Hill, and hit Welington Castillo to load the bases. That was it for Smith, and it was his second shaky outing in a row. The Mariners seem to think that Fernando Rodney has been tipping his pitches and are working with him to straighten that out. Santiago Casilla had saved games on Saturday and Sunday, so he got the night off Monday. Sergio Romo got the save, and Hunter Strickland continued to build on his impressive campaign with a scoreless eighth, striking out a pair. Many of us would love to see him leap over Romo on the grid, but usage suggests that isn’t going to happen just yet. Jenrry Mejia failed another drug test, and now he will be suspended for 162 games. He’s been removed from the grid. Tyler Clippard made his Mets debut, pitching a scoreless ninth. Greg Holland saved his 22nd on Tuesday with Wade Davis picking up his seventh win. The Royals were one of the seemingly few teams that didn’t see any changes to their grid today. A.J. Ramos loaded the bases for the second game in a row and wriggled out of it without allowing a run. He’s got 17 saves on the season now.
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.
If the Cubs bullpen ain’t pulsing violent red, I don’t know what is…
Example #328 of why you should ignore the grid colors. Granted this is an inner-circle HoF reason.
But that’s a ‘big Hall’ inner-circle.
Perkins stunk again tonight — if I were to pick up a Twin, iwould it be Boyer over Fien?
Neither. Perkins has about as long a leash as any closer in the game. The Twins bullpen has zero viable alternatives right now, I mean May has passed up Boyer and Fien at this point.
You SURE Axford is safe? Wha are you basing that on?
‘basing’ is one of those words that just looks weird when you spell it out.
And feels weird when you do it.
This is more of a detailed reference guide, not the black and white truth (insert joke here about it being green, yellow, and red). The closer is a volatile role, so use this as a reference, but if you think something different…that’s okay.
Drop Motte for Mujica?
based on history? I’d keep Motte for now, honestly. Mujica has his own history of blow-ups.
yes, drop Motte for Mujica simply because Cubs have better options in Rondon and Strop and even Soriano. And Maddon also said this weekend, he didn’t mind using a committee.
At least with the A’s they don’t have many other options that jump at you until Doolittle returns in late Aug.
Joe Maddon is an idiot. Remove Rondon because he allowed a few base runners just to turn it over to his favorite dumpster fires. Never mind Rondon hasn’t allowed a run in a month. Cubs will never win with this nonsensical managing.
Not sure why I keep checking this site’s closers chart. Agaisnst my better instincts, I grabbed Rodriguez instead of Mujica and, poof! The second place team trailing me by 2 points and 4 saves gets Mujica. Lazy journalism and Fangraphs should be doing a better job employing fantasy experts instead of Ivy Leaguers with a passive interest in fantasy baseball.
Downvote
In other words:
“I can’t make a decision for myself. I rely on others to make my decisions for me. If the decision is correct, I am a genius. If the decision is wrong, blame fangraphs”.
Yeah, I read and appreciate the Fangraph writers work. But I read critically. They seem to overweight velocity, Ks and youth and underweight contracts, convention and newsy stuff.
For example, on Mujica, Capps, Vizcaino: low-budget losing teams have strong incentives to hide their controlled young arms from collecting saves and to build up value in veteran rentals. Some closer roles arrive from that more than skills.
Also, pitchers adapt to declining velocity and decling K rates- I found value over the past few years by tacking against the writers here and picking up Paplebon, Krod, Street, Betancourt and a few others.
I could be wrong, but there’s an example for James of reading critically.
I read critically too. That’s why I take their information and then make an informed decision based on what they say and other factors that I think provide value. Fangraphs doesn’t force me to make the decisions that I do.
They were pretty clear saying that it was their best guess and they weren’t sure. And really you could have made cases for at least 3 relievers in that bullpen as the guy (Mujica’s experience, Rodriguez’s performance, Scribner looking the heir apparent most of the season).
I felt like it would be Mujica all along, simply because I could see Beane pushing for him to get the gig to:
1. Avoid upping the arbitration rates for cost controlled guys like Scribner, Rodriguez and Pomeranz.
2. Artificially boosting Mujica’s value in the eyes of a GM and maybe getting a prospect or cash in August for him.
This is still a great site and a solid series of articles, but in the fantasy landscape, often times speculating on Closers is like shooting darts blindfolded. No other position in Fantasy sports has so much off-the-field and manager preference issues built into it.
waaaaaah
It’ll probably be moot by next month anyway. Doolittle has already started throwing and Melvin said recently having Doolittle in the 9th as closer is like having a security blanket.
Axford has been brutal lately.
Wonder who will get the next shot in Colorado if/when Axford loses the job. The grid has Kahnle but you have to wonder if Betancourt would be next in line? Kahnle’s walk rate is 14.4% and that tends to tick managers off, not to mention Betancourt’s experience in the role which was how Axford got the job in the first place. It’s wide open for sure but I’m in a fantasy league where saves speculation is at a premium. Interested to hear comments on this.
Also for the record this is not the same James as above who commented negatively about the closer chart.
We could tell it wasn’t the same James because you formulated an actual opinion