• After blowing the save last night against the Giants and receiving the win, Cubs closer Kyuji Fujikawa has been placed on the 15-day disabled list. The Cubs plan to go with a committee approach but Marmol won’t be part of that committee, leaving the save opportunities to Shawn Camp and James Russell while Fujikawa is on the shelf.  Teams in need of saves should certainly look towards Camp and/or Russell but unless you are desperate, the roster spot used on a mediocre reliever hoping to chase a few saves on a committee might not be worth it. Rafael Dolis was called up for Fujikawa and although he received a few save ops last year, he has a 6.18 ERA in the majors and mediocre peripherals throughout his minor league career. Shawn Camp’s better than his seasonal 6.75 ERA but with a career 6.2 K/9 and 4.09 FIP, if you’re not in a very deep or NL-Only league, he might hurt hurt your roster if he’s not getting consistent saves. James Russell, like Camp has uninspiring numbers and should only be owned if you really need the saves.

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• After my post deadline last night, the Royals’ Kelvin Herrera racked up his fifth career save by striking out the side (around a lone hit) against Minnesota. Before anyone gets too excited, current Royals closer Greg Holland was getting a day off after a laborious 27-pitch save the night before and Herrera’s appearance did not signal a changing of the guard. While he had a solid 22.4% K% in 2012, Herrera’s stuff has been eye-popping during his few outings this season. His fastball velocity is down a tick, but he’s also thrown the pitch less and gone to his changeup a whopping 42.1% of the time. For comparison, he went straight offspeed only 27.2% of the time last season. His SwStr% on the changeup was 21% last season and is up to 33% so far this year, so getting ahead of hitters and pulling the string could mean a serious jump in strikeout rate.

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• Joel Hanrahan had a night to forget in Boston. Coming on with a two run lead, he gave up a leadoff shot to the red-hot Chris Davis and things only went downhill after that. A few walks and a wild pitch later and the save was blown, and that was still before Manny Machado jacked a three-run moonshot over the Green Monster to put a five-spot on the Red Sox closer. Hanrahan was great in 2010 and 2011 but suffered major regression last season, seeing his velocity dip (97.1 mph to 95.9 mph) and his walk rate soar (5.8% BB% to 14.2%). He hasn’t been good this year, either, with an 11.69 FIP (6.63 xFIP) through 23 batters faced. Even though his velocity is back up over 97 mph, the control continues to trend downward with his F-Strike% down another few percentage points from 2012’s career low.

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• It wasn’t a save situation but Joaquin Benoit entered the game in the ninth today, giving up two hits and one run via a Colby Rasmus homer. The Tigers still haven’t officially announced a closer but it sure seems like the ninth inning, at least when not facing a tough lefty, belongs to Benoit. He hasn’t run away with the job only pitching to a 4.15/6.72/5.09 ERA/FIP/xFIP thus far but consider him the closer in Detroit until further notice.

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We are only in the second week of the season and already there is much to talk about at the Bullpen Report, all aboard the closer carousel of 2013!

• Aaron Crow received the save today for Kansas City but Royals manager Ned Yost insisted  that “Holland is our closer.” Greg Holland and Kelvin Herrera had pitched in the previous two games and Yost wanted to give them a day off. Ervin Santana did his part today to give the pen some rest, pitching eight innings before handing the game off to Crow in the ninth. Aaron Crow is a solid reliever  and any fantasy team looking to help their ratios or just particularly desperate for saves could look his way. His career 9.16 K/9 and 3.05 ERA will help but at the moment it’s still Holland’s job to lose.

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• It looks like it is over (again) for Carlos Marmol. For the second year in a row, he’s lost the ninth inning job in the Windy City after opening the season as closer, although it only took six games in 2013. Since 2010, Marmol has only trailed Craig Kimbrel, Kenley Jansen, and Aroldis Chapman in K% among big league relievers — certainly not bad company. Unfortunately, the fact that I do a better job hitting a target while playing darts after, let’s say, a few beers, is extraordinarily problematic for him. On the short season, Marmol’s K%-BB% is zero. Yup, he’s walking exactly as many batters as he’s whiffing, and you don’t need advanced metrics to tell you that’s bad.

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–Addison Reed notched his third save of the season — tying him for the early league lead after the first week with Sergio Romo — dishing a perfect ninth-inning as the White Sox clipped the Mariners, 4-3. The 24-year-old Reed induced a Dustin Ackley groundout to first, then fanned pinch-hitters Franklin Gutierrez and Jesus Montero to seal the deal. The prescription was a steady diet of sliders to both Gutierrez and Montero, each of whom ended their at-bats with swings-and-misses on Reed’s preferred offering.

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-A lackluster start to the season by Detroit’s closer-by-committee situation lead the Tigers down a familiar path on Thursday. The American League Central favorites re-signed their former closer, Jose Valverde, to a minor league contract with the option to opt out by May 5th if he’s not called up to the Majors. The 35 year-old veteran is clearly not the long-term solution in Motown, but could serve as a band-aid until Phil Coke, Al Alburquerque or Joaquin Benoit decide to grab ahold of the ninth inning — or until Bruce Rondon is deemed ready for the role.

With the signing — and if he gets the call — Valverde would have the third most career saves among active, non-injured relievers. Entering today, Valverde’s 277 saves would place him behind only future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera (608) and Joe Nathan (298) among those expected to pitch in ‘13.

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• Phil Coke got a second crack at closing a game for the Tigers but ended up being far less successful than he was in his first. After Joaquin Benoit walked Trevor Plouffe to start the ninth (never a good thing), Coke induced a fly out, but then gave up single, double to turn a 2-1 lead into a 3-2 loss. In his defense, the double really should have been caught had it not been for some outfield miscommunication, but it still wasn’t an effective outing by any metric. I have been bearish the past week on Coke’s potential given his .275/.346 versus LHH/RHH wOBA splits and this outing only underscores his platoon concerns (all of the baserunners who reached today were right-handed hitters). The walk was really Benoit’s lone blemish today, so he’s likely still an option in the ninth, although Jim Leyland could just as easily roll with Al Alburquerque or Octavio Dotel, too. Your best bet with this pen may be to just pick up one of the four, hold them on your bench for a little bit, and gamble on them picking up the hot hand. It feels like picking names out of a hat right now.

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• I wasn’t able to write the Marlins Bullpen Depth Chart Discussion so I’ll use this space now to briefly discuss what’s going on in Miami’s bullpen. As you know, Heath Bell has been jettisoned to Arizona and Steve Cishek now has the closing gig on a full time basis without having to worry about the overpaid vet with “closer experience” lurking behind his shoulder. Cishek can get strikeouts (9.61 K/9 in 2012) but he struggles a bit with control (4.10 BB/9 in 2012) and has shown a pretty big platoon split with a career .240 wOBA against right-handed hitters but a .310 against left side. Still, he’s the Marlins man in the ninth and his job is secure to start the season.

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