Archive for Closers

As the Dodgers head into the stretch run, 3.5 games back of the Giants, they’re a team with their fair share of problems, even after the shocking month of acquisitions that netted them Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez, Shane Victorino, Nick Punto, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, Joe Blanton, Brandon League, & Randy Choate. In the rotation, Chad Billingsley & Ted Lilly have each been battling arm injuries which may put them out for the season. In the outfield, team MVP Matt Kemp banged up his knee and jaw running into the wall in Colorado, and even if he returns in the next few days, it’s not likely to be at full strength. And perhaps scariest of all, the status of fireballing closer Kenley Jansen is uncertain thanks to another recurrence of the irregular heartbeat that has already sidelined him twice over the last calendar year.

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• Apologies for last night where I failed to realize that Dale Thayer pitched in the eighth inning as Luke Gregerson got the save. It’s possible that Bud Black might have wanted to ease Thayer back in as he hadn’t pitched in a week before last night’s appearance but at this point Gregerson, with his incredible slider, is the guy to own in the Padres bullpen. Granted the Padres closing situation isn’t the most enticing in fantasy baseball but saves are saves and at the moment those belong to Gregerson.
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• Rafael Soriano blew his third save of the season tonight off of a three-run homer by Colby Rasmus in the top of the ninth inning. Although Soriano has been having, and should continue to have a solid year racking up saves for the Yankees, a 1.9% HR/FB% just wasn’t sustainable all season and regression reared its ugly head tonight. Even after tonight’s outing, Soriano’s ERA remains a pristine 2.05, but his 3.65 xFIP and 1.20 WHIP prevents him from being an elite fantasy closer. Still, without any concern about his job security, Soriano remains a great source of saves for the rest of the season

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• Alfredo Aceves did not take kindly to Andrew Bailey getting a save on Friday, reportedly tearing off his jersey after the game before storming into Bobby Valentine’s office and demanding to talk with general manager Ben Cherington. The team responded by suspending him for three games (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday). As I talked about in yesterday’s Bullpen Report, Aceves has been skating on thin ice for a while, and may have finally snapped when the guy the BoSox acquired to pitch the ninth inning finally returned from the disabled list. The Sox have not announced that Bailey is the new ninth inning guy (3.42 career xFIP, 76 saves), but with Aceves’ 4.31 xFIP and an underwhelming career 2.6 SD/MD ratio, it seems the writing is on the wall. (Mark Melancon got the save on Sunday with Aceves and Bailey unavailable. He’s been scattered around between high- and low-leverage situations lately, so nothing important to see here.)

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Welcome to the first ever UK edition of the Bullpen Report! In honor of this momentous occasion (also known as “the column written while the rest of America sleeps”), bullpens were the opposite of boring last night. Full steam ahead!

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• Last night Javier Lopez picked up the save for the Giants recording just the final out after Hanley Ramirez hit a home run off of Sergio Romo. Jeremy Affeldt has had some struggles recently but without any word from manager Bruce Bochy, Affeldt should still be ahead of Lopez in the pecking order, splitting closing duties with Romo.

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Last night, Sergio Romo’s slider wasn’t biting just right. Maybe the release point wasn’t quite right, but whatever happened, he didn’t get a whiff on any of his ten pitches. Since he’s shown a 15+% swinging strike rate over the last couple of years, that’s at least one short of a regular appearance.

But that doesn’t mean that his arsenal didn’t predict the end of the game. In fact, his arsenal, along with those of the two other heads in the Giants’ three-headed closer monster, should help us figure out what to do with the Giants bullpen in fantasy baseball.

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•  Rafael Soriano pitched a scoreless inning in last night’s game against the Red Sox for his 31st save of the year. Soriano’s xFIP is a solid but unspectacular 3.63 due to his minuscule HR/FB ratio (2.0%),  but his 2.36 FIP illustrates that he’s still been having a solid season thus far and should continue to rack up saves pitching for the Yankees even though his ERA will creep up from its current 1.64.

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• Steve Cishek polished off save number nine on Saturday, but not before Marlins fans had to reach for the antacid. Cishek gave up three singles to turn a three-run game into one where Jordan Pacheco came to the plate as the winning run. Luckily (for Miami) Pacheco grounded out, preserving a 6-5 win. Cishek had previously been untouchable since being installed as the new Marlins closer (0.77 ERA, 13/3 K/BB in 11.2 innings since mid-July), so owners shouldn’t panic yet. Yes, Cishek does have unfavorable platoon splits and, yes, the Marlins would surely like their $27 million man (Heath Bell) to do what he’s being paid $9 million a year to do (close games) but — for the time being — the closer job is not up for debate in Miami.

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Tyler Clippard appears to be back on the wagon. After a couple bumps in the road the last few weeks, he has now turned in four consecutive saves since his last “BS” in Houston on August 6th. Tonight’s outing was a bit shakier than you’d like, as Clippard walked a pair to let Ruben Tejada come to the plate as the go-ahead run with two down in the ninth, but a harmless fly ball to left gave the Nationals another victory. There has been a lot of discussion as to whether Drew Storen could come back in and snatch the ninth inning job back for himself, but the Nationals have to be somewhat concerned with a fastball velocity that still isn’t quite to where it has been in the past. Interestingly, even with the one-plus mile per hour drop, Storen’s SwStr% is up to 11.5% (career average: 9.3%) — unfortunately (for him) his 15.9% BB% is driving a 5.21 xFIP. Storen needs to throw more strikes before he’s a legitimate option to finish games again, so Clippard’s owners should be a bit more relaxed than they might have been a couple weeks ago.

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