Archive for Relief Pitchers

Pitcher Playing Time Changes: March 19, 2025

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Below are the latest playing time changes for pitchers since Monday, with the Patrick Corbin signing further reshuffling projected starts for the Rangers.

SP Projected GS Changes, 3/17 to 3/19
Player Team Old GS New GS GS Change Reason
Patrick Corbin TEX FA 16 3 Will help cover starts, especially in the first half
Stephen Kolek SDP 8 11 3 Darvish injury opens up more starts
Adrian Houser TEX 5 2 -3 Corbin signings eats into PT
Yu Darvish SDP 29 26 -3 Elbow inflammation, hard to see him ready for Opening Day
Jack Leiter TEX 23 19 -4 Corbin signings eats into PT; maybe some RP innings later on?
Cody Bradford TEX 8 3 -5 Corbin signings eats into PT; could relieve when healthy

 

RP Projected IP Changes, 3/17 to 3/19
Player Team Old IP New IP IP Change Reason
Richard Lovelady TOR 26 55 29 Contract selected; not guaranteed to make roster but he’s out of options os he’s got a good shot
Anderson Pilar ATL 8 35 27 Perdomo trade, Farmer reassignment makes bullpen spot more plausible for the R5 pick
Luis Garcia LAD 16 33 17 Contract selected for Tokyo Series, would be odd to DFA him before Opening Day
Nick Hernandez HOU 44 28 -16 Optioned to minors after bad Spring Training
Blake Walston ARI 32 0 -32 Tommy John surgery

Pitcher Playing Time Changes: March 13, 2025

Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

Below are the notable pitcher playing time changes in the last 48 hours or so. For further detail on the methodology and more recent changes, my first rundown from Tuesday is here.

Starting Pitchers
Pitcher Team 3/11 GS 3/13 GS GS Change Reason
Stephen Kolek SDP 3 8 5 Taking to the rotation very well, might have a leg up on Hart
Zebby Matthews MIN 11 15 4 Could build on brilliant Spring Training and take starts from Paddack or SWR down the line
Landen Roupp SFG 8 11 3 Separating himself from Kyle Harrison for SP5 (keep an eye on Birdsong, too)
Michael McGreevy STL 2 5 3 Pitching great, but when will a spot open up for him?
Kyle Hart 하트 SDP 15 11 -4 Could start in bullpen; rainout knocked him out of his first start after 2 IP and he might not have enough time

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Beat the Shift Podcast – Relief Pitcher Episode w/ Greg Jewett

The Relief Pitcher episode of the Beat the Shift Podcast – a baseball podcast for fantasy baseball players.

Guest: Greg Jewett

Strategy Section

  • Closer Landscape
  • Closer Strategy
    • Should you invest in an elite closer?
    • Is it viable to draft two top-10 closers?
  • Would you rather?
  • Breakout relievers

Closer Situations

  • Free Agents
  • American League
  • National League

Injury Guru’s Trivia of the Week

 

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Pitcher Playing Time Changes: March 11, 2025

Dave Nelson-Imagn Images

Following up on yesterday’s post going over position player playing time changes, we now turn our attention to the pitchers. Unlike hitters, where all playing time is shown in plate appearances, we’re splitting into two tables here. Starters are shown with games started, and relievers are shown with relief innings. When looking at our projections on a player page, you’ll notice that for all relievers, innings and games pitched are the same; that’s just how our projection system works to allocate reliever innings. I’d pay more attention to the innings, since the projected games pitched number will often be higher than the actually-expected number simply to inflate a pitcher’s innings to what we feel is accurate.

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Ottoneu: The Big Name Pitchers Dropped at the Deadline

Kevin Gausman walks off the mound with his head held low.
Credit: Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

One Ottoneu manager’s cuts are another Ottoneu manager’s auction bids. But take heed pretend baseball general manager! These pitchers were cut for a reason. Maybe their signature pitch no longer fell out of the zone at the last split second like it used to. Maybe injury has the general public concerned. But, maybe those criticisms will be your opportunities. This article provides some context about the pitchers who were dropped the most at the keeper deadline, using “% of leagues with a cut in the last 7 days” as the starting point.
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The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 1371 – NL Closer Preview

2/3/25

The latest episode of “The Sleeper and the Bust” is live. Support the show by subscribing to our Patreon!!

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The Impact of Team Win’s on Saves

Denis Poroy-Imagn Images

Tanner Scott signed with the Dodgers earlier this week and you may be wondering, does that make him a top 10 closer going into the 2025 season? Certainly, it must change his pre-trade auction calculator (Steamer) ranking of 14th, right? Roster Resource lists Scott as the Dodger closer for now, but Michael Kopech, Blake Treinen, and maybe even Evan Phillips may cut in on his save counts. And what if the Dodgers score so many runs with their high-powered offense that Scott doesn’t get the opportunity to earn a save often enough? Does being on a really good team limit a team’s save accumulation? Read the rest of this entry »


What to Spend on RP in Ottoneu

If you have been reading my content or following me on Twitter (or now on Bluesky) over the years, you know my stance on RP. If not, here is the TL;DR of everything I have ever written about relievers in Ottoneu: I don’t like to spend on them. Go cheap on the pen, spend elsewhere. But, to be transparent, that was always more a vibes-based thing than real analysis. Until now.

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Know Your Averages 2024, Cutter Edition

What is different about the cutter? Scroll down to the bar chart below to see that it is in the zone the least of the three fastballs (four-seamer, sinker, cutter) analyzed in this series. In the zone the least, yet swung on the most. Heck, it’s even chased out of the zone by hitters the most. That’s the cutter. When executed correctly, it cuts in on a batter’s hands or it tails away from the barrel. How else does it compare to the four-seamer and sinker? In this article, we conclude the “Know Your Averages” series with a jammed hitter, a broken bat, and a sore palm.

Four-seamers | Sinkers | Cutters
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Know Your Averages 2024, Sinker Edition

When you have a pitch that can be thrown in the zone, induce weak contact, and get called strikes, you throw it and you throw it often. However, last season (2023) the sinker’s usage hit its lowest point within the Statcast era among starting pitchers, down to 13.9%. A slight resurgence this season has brought its usage up to 15.0%. Compared to a 22.8% usage in 2015, the start of the statcast era, the sinker no longer sits at the popular kid’s lunch table.

However, if we change the split to view the sinkers utilization by relievers, we see the resurgence started earlier and with a little more gusto:

Sinker Usage Comparison (SP/RP) 2015-2024

Relievers have been doing crazy things with their sinkers when you look at the data. The obvious ones like throwing it faster with more movement are apparent, but throwing it in unusual locations seems to be a thing. While all those small changes are occurring, we can still rely on what is happening on average to help us make quick comparisons. For example, a swinging strike rate of 10% on a four-seam fastball is average. A 10% swinging strike rate on a sinker is really good. This post serves to help navigate benchmark statistics on the sinker.

Four-seamers | Sinkers | Cutters
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