Good morning! Coming at you from a different time after a late slate of games, and the same may be true for the 14th. Apologies to all the night owls, who may just need to pull a couple of all-nighters. Ok, onto the report.
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Yesterday I had mentioned that the Rockies had not announced a closer. Well, that was wrong as Weiss named Carlos Estevez as their closer while McGee is out. This came after Estevez recorded his first save and Weiss had said earlier that Estevez would be sharing duties with Jason Motte. Must have been nice for Estevez owners to hear their guy would get most of the saves, right? That was until Boone Logan got the one out save today, after Motte started the 9th off retiring the first two batters. He then walked his third hitter, and then Weiss called on Logan to get the last out as he earned his first save of the season. This wasn’t a case of Weiss going against his word. Instead, Estevez was due some rest after throwing 28 pitches on Friday and closing out last night’s game despite Weiss saying he wanted to avoid that. This was just a normal day of rest for Estevez, and he should be getting the rest of the save opportunities. I left it at Yellow because it is a Colorado pitcher and I don’t think the Rockies will hesitate to pull him if he began to struggle in the 9th.
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As if the Reds bullpen wasn’t frustrating enough, they elected to use their closer Tony Cingrani in the 8th to match-up with Oakland’s 2-3-4 hitters, instead of saving him for the 9th. He did his job and earned his 7th hold of the year, paving the way for Ross Ohlendorf to earn his first save of the season. Ohlendorf made it slightly interesting giving up 2 hits, but managed to strike out Billy Butler with two on to close it out. Save opportunities are few and far between for the Reds, and the usage shown today makes this situation one I will continue to avoid with the exception of the deepest of leagues. Read the rest of this entry »
A couple of quick notes from today’s action…
Two consecutive days off seemed to be the gameplan for Sam Dyson this evening, making way for left-hander Jake Diekman in the ninth-inning of a save situation against the Astros. Diekman surrendered a leadoff walk to George Springer, but induced a Jose Altuve pop out and a double play off the bat of Tony Kemp to seal the victory, earning his first career save. Diekman’s ten pitch effort (four strikes) against a pair of righties and lefty was rather impressive, but Matt Bush’s trio of strikeouts in the eighth is worthy of a few words as well. Bush, the right-handed setup man, fanned Luis Valbuena and Carlos Gomez to start the frame, then yielded a free pass to Colby Rasmus before finishing off the innings with a strikeout of Jake Marisnick. Bush now owns a 1.42 ERA (1.46 FIP) with a 10.27 K/9 in 12.1 innings on the hill since being recalled. He’ll hang in the second chair for now, but his 96 mph heat will need to be monitored closely as the summer wears on
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• A.J. Hinch is saying all sorts of things about a committee in Houston. What we do know is that Will Harris has two saves since Luke Gregerson got yanked, with this one coming against Rangers in polishing off a 3-1 win for Doug Fister. We’ve written quite a bit about the ‘Stros ninth inning situation the last few days in this space, so I don’t need to reiterate Harris’ shiny 2.39 xFIP or that his SIERA over the last 5 years is 2.88. With Gregerson getting at least a breather and Ken Giles still not getting a chance to redeem his loss from Monday, Harris jumps to the front of the line in this pen. Worth noting that flamethrower Michael Feliz was used in the 7th inning today (no punchouts, surpisingly). While he’s an interesting arm, the team doesn’t seem to be using him in a fashion to get him on the grid yet.
• As Paul mentioned last night, there might be a shakeup in Houston but Hinch won’t name a closer besides saying Gregerson will be getting a break. Will Harris received the save last night with Ken Giles having a day off. Whether or not Giles would have received the call, we don’t know. Michael Feliz might also be considered but he threw in the sixth and seventh innings tonight, losing the lead in the seventh after a couple of base hits and a sacrifice fly. Although Feliz might be pitching the best of anyone in Houston, he’s been mostly used as a multiple inning reliever. Luke Gregerson entered the game in a 5-5 game in the eighth inning, suggesting he’s not necessarily the closer but still hasn’t vanished from high leverage innings. Striking out two batters in perfect inning with only eight pitches will help regain the closer chair as well. Ken Giles was called on for the ninth in a tie game and I’ve put him ahead of Harris on the grid below.
Update: I was a little quick to the draw as Giles blew the lead in Houston after publishing. I think the Astros could be somewhat inclined to give Giles a chance at the ninth but failing tonight certainly puts Harris ahead of him. I wouldn’t drop Gregerson but Harris should get the next opportunity.
Well, the Houston situation just got interesting. A.J. Hinch said they will are going to use multiple guys to close games. In other words, they are going to use fantasy players favorite term and have committee closers. This is the day after Luke Gregerson blew his fifth save of the season giving up a game-tying homer to Jed Lowrie. In today’s game, Will Harris was given the save opportunity and pitched a clean ninth tallying one strikeout. Gregerson’s K’s are in line with his career norms, but his walks are up and his ERA sits at 4.56, which is a career high. There is still hope he can earn the role back as his FIP is 3.16, which is higher than his career FIP (2.99), but not by much. Though he has struggled pretty mightily in May, so taking this weight off his shoulders may help him right the ship. Harris has been absurd this year posting a 0.34 ERA (1.40 FIP) with improvements in his K% and BB% from last year and his career. Ken Giles may have been called on to close the 9th tonight, but he pitched two scoreless innings last night so he was due the night off. Hinch has indicated that he will use all three guys, and will even throw Michael Feliz into the mix as well.
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Wade Davis was given the night off after recording his 16th save last night. Luke Hochevar and Kelvin Herrera each earned holds (10 and 15 respectively), as Hochevar pitched a clean 7th and Herrera, well, not so much as he gave up a run on two singles and a walk. Joakim Soria pitched the 9th, which is semi-surprising since it seemed like Herrera would be the next in line for saves if the moment arises. Guess Ned Yost thought it’d be best to not mess around too much with the bullpen order and give the save situation to the guy with more experience. Didn’t work out so well for the Royals as Soria blew his second save of the year giving up two runs on two hits (including a triple) and a game-ending sacrifice fly. I could change the chart based on tonight’s usage, but also feel like if a long-term situation was to come up, Herrera would be the guy.
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• It’s the first day of June and Brad Boxberger is headed back to where he spent the first couple of months. After only one appearance, Boxy is headed back to the disabled list with an oblique strain. Early estimates are 4-8 weeks, so feel free to stash him if you have a DL slot, but he’s certainly not must-own unless you feel that 1-2 saves will be the difference in September. The only thing that has kept this bullpen from being Alex Colome’s lock-down special was Boxberger’s impending return (and some vague commentary about him not getting Wally Pipp‘d), so I flipped it to green. Colome has a 1.67 SIERA (which neatly matches his 1.23 ERA) and put together a better May than an already excellent April. One minor concern is a slight recent downtick in velocity, but it hasn’t seemed to hurt anything.
A few quick notes from Memorial Day:
• It wouldn’t be an authentic Bullpen Report without bad news out of Cincinnati’s bullpen as Tony Cingrani blew his fourth save last night. Cingrani entered the ninth like a regular old closer but was unable to finish the inning after allowing four baseruners and three earned runs. Ross Ohlendorf threw a perfect eighth and JC Ramirez was able to get the final out for his first big league save. As usual this situation is ridiculously fluid with Ohlendorf and Cingrani likely still in some sort of job-share for the moment.