• After some struggles this year, Addison Reed’s (7.20/3.64/4.43 ERA/FIP/xFIP) hold on the closer’s role has loosened. While Chip Hale thinks that Reed will get the job back, he will be used in earlier innings for now as he works through “mechanical changes.” Expect Brad Ziegler to get the first save opportunity that arises, so if he’s available on the wire be sure to get in your claims ASAP. Additionally, Dan Hudson could see some higher leverage work as well with Reed displaced and everyone moving up a step. Hudson is kind of toiling in between relieving and possibly starting but he struggled today, allowing two runs, ballooning his ERA to 6.00. Evan Marshall who figured to play a more prominent role in the pen is now pitching in AAA. Other intriguing names are Randall Delgado who looks a bit better out of the pen and Enrique Burgos, who’s control might prevent him from being trusted much but has massive swing and miss stuff, showing it off today with two strikeouts in 1.2 innings. Oliver Perez blew the lead and received the loss today, but with his 6.52 ERA he’s still likely more of a LOOGY long term.

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With many leagues now using saves plus holds (SVHD) as a category, some people now spend less time on the hellish closer carousel. I’m in a 15-team FSWA league that uses SVHD and very much enjoy not having to race to the wire to add someone newly named to the closer’s role or agonizing over how much FAAB to spend on someone that may not hold on to a newly acquired ninth inning gig.

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• Steve Cishek’s blow up last night was the last straw as Mike Redmond has removed him from the closer’s role.  Cishek’s seasonal struggles have been well noted in the Bullpen Reports this year. His velocity has been up and down this season and he’s just been too hittable all season long. Roller coasters are fun at an amusement park but when it involves your closer, a change needs to be made. There has been no news on who specifically will replace Cishek and the Marlins figure to mix and match/use a committee for now, until someone takes the job fully. In the mix should be Bryan Morris, Mike Dunn (L),  A.J. Ramos and potentially Rafael Soriano as he and the Marlins are “very much engaged” in talks. As Darren speculated in last night’s BR, based on their seasons thus far you would expect A.J. Ramos to receive the first chance but until we see what he does we won’t really know. It’s possible that Redmond might leave Ramos in the familiar eighth inning and play the matchups with Morris and Dunn. Still, the safe speculation is Ramos, Dunn and Morris, and in that order.

Rafael Soriano wasn’t necessarily bad last year as he had a 3.19/3.08/3.92 ERA/FIP/xFIP line but he also wasn’t impressive enough to find a contract this season, yet. He did save 32 games though, and if the Marlins sign him they could prefer Soriano’s closing experience while keeping the rest of the bullpen in their familiar roles. By the time this is published, the Marlins won’t have a save opportunity to speak about but we’ll be sure to keep you up to date on their bullpen situation along with any additional Soriano rumors. I recognize Cishek isn’t injured or in the minors, but for now I’m placing him in the last column on the closer grid.

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With Jake McGee currently on a rehab assignment and Sean Doolittle reportedly set to begin one soon, Brad Boxberger and Tyler Clippard may not be seeing much of the ninth inning soon. Ignoring the whims of managers and whether McGee and Doolittle will resume their role as closer, should they? Read the rest of this entry »

For a change, this week’s pair of recommendations are not the result of injury. One of them could be usable in more than just deep leagues, depending on your specific format, while the other is truly for the deep leaguers.

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I guess I missed that internet meme turned actual thing with “may the fourth be with you” last night so tonight I hope everyone enjoyed themselves on Cinco de Mayo. My roommate made Guacamole, so if that counts as celebrating then I did. Anywho, back to the bullpens…

• After allowing a lead-off solo shot to Chris Davis to start the ninth inning, Jeurys Familia retired the next three batters for his league leading 11th save of the year. After tonight’s outing Familia is supporting a 1.88/3.20/2.14 ERA/FIP/xFIP line with a 58.6% GB% and 17 strikeouts against just three walks in 14.1 innings pitched. It’s impossible for Familia to hold a .107 BABIP all season long but Familia is showing he is more than just the fill-in closer for the Mets. I could see Familia out performing some of the ROS projections a tad, but expecting an ERA far below 3.00 isn’t necessarily reasonable. Still, he should continue to see save opps for the Metropolitans while striking out over a batter an inning without anyone breathing down his neck.

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• The Yankees bullpen, which has been nearly perfect this season, blew the one-run lead in the eighth inning tonight with Chris Martin and Dellin Betances allowing three runs between them. Betances, who allowed an unearned run and still maintains a sparkling 0.00 ERA, received his first blown save of the season. Martin received the loss after allowing two hits to start the inning. Although Martin’s ERA ballooned to 3.86 after tonight’s outing, he still supports a 1.67 FIP and 2.36 FIP with 13 strikeouts against two walks in 11.2 innings pitched. Not bad for the third best guy in the pen. The ROS projections for Martin aren’t too promising given his unsuccessful recent history but he’s also hasn’t been particularly lucky this season with a 72.7 LOB% and.258 BABIP. Martin hasn’t allowed a home run yet, and he likely won’t go all year without giving one up but his GB% is 54.8%, so it’s not as if fly balls keep on just missing. He’s far away from saves with Andrew Miller and Betances crushing everyone right now but Martin should be a hold machine with an above average strikeout rate, valuable in most, if not all, deep leagues.

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• Huston Street saved his ninth game of the year with a large thanks to Mike Trout for doing this. Street allowed four base runners and was somehow able to only allow one earned run, even including Trout’s game saving catch. Street owners should be thankful for Trout, as this could have been a disaster of an outing. Today’s earned run was the first allowed on street this year and he will enter his next appearance with an impressive 1.00/1.95/3.59 ERA/FIP/xFIP line. This is the Bullpen Report, but Mike Trout is so good he becomes the lead.

• Sean Doolittle continued his rehab, throwing a 25-pitch bullpen today.  Assuming no set backs, Doolittle should have a few more bullpens before starting the rehab appearances in the low minors. The A’s have only handed Tyler Clippard two save opportunities thus far, so Clippard owners expecting a few saves while Doolittle comes back from injury might be out of luck with him nearing a return. However, Clippard should seamlessly move back to his familiar set up role, netting holds and vulture wins.

• Drew Storen wasn’t given a save opp but he still pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts, securing the win against the Metropolitans. It’s a pain when your closer gives up runs on a work day, so it’s refreshing for Storen owners to see him pitch a clean inning in a non-save situation. Also of note in this game, Nationals prospect Sammy Solis made his majorleague debut, throwing two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out one as well. Solis is an older prospect but was mentioned by Kiley McDaniel as a top 20 prospect for the Nationals earlier this year. Solis has a power arm and was touching 96+ mph in his outing tonight. Every year there are young arms that come up and are quite impressive, Solis might be a sleeper to keep an eye on and could factor into more higher leverage innings as the season moves on.

• Brett Cecil didn’t enter the game with a save situation, but he still threw a scoreless ninth, holding the four run lead for the Blue Jays. He allowed a base hit but otherwise retired all the other batters without issue. Innings like this, regardless of a save situation or not will go a long way towards Cecil maintaing the job. As we mentioned before, the biggest impediment to Cecil’s save total now may not be his fellow bullpen mates but whether or not Aaron Sanchez stays in the rotation. Roberto Osuna entered the game in the sixth and finished the seventh with Aaron Loup pitching the eighth. This might be the order of operations moving forward, but it certainly looks like Cecil’s job to lose for now.

Closer Grid:

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[Green light, yellow light, red light: the colors represent the volatility of the bullpen order.]

If you follow the Bullpen Report here, you might have noticed a new name pop up as the “second” guy in the Pittsburgh bullpen (meaning the guy behind both the closer and the guy most likely to usurp the closer). Benajmin Pasinkoff bestowed that honor on one Arquimedes Caminero in last night’s Bullpen Report, displacing Jared Hughes as the man behind the man (Tony Watson) behind the closer (Mark Melancon).

Given that I know nothing of this Arquimedes fellow other than the fact that his parents might have been trying to name him after the Greek mathemetician (I like to think Archimedes would have liked sabermetrics), I gave his player page a gander. One portion of his player page stood out in particular. Read the rest of this entry »

• Miguel Castro is out and Brett Cecil is back in as closer for Toronto. This isn’t necessarily the alignment that the Blue Jays will stick with all season but Gibbons said he will “try” Cecil as closer, with Loup-Osuna in 7th-8th. Miguel Castro will be moved to other innings and theoretically could regain the role at a later date. The fact Castro is staying in the majors might signal a somewhat legitimate commitment to him in Toronto. He and Osuna have their young warts but are very talented arms. Brett Cecil might go as far as his velocity takes him, as its been a bit of a roller coaster this year, but he was above 90 mph tonight as he recorded his first save of the year. If he’s healthy and maintains velocity like he had tonight, Cecil could hold the role but he’ll have plenty of power arms behind his back. Another road block in Cecil’s saves future could be Aaron Sanchez. If he gets demoted to the bullpen, he’s likely their best pitcher there but the Jays should continue to trot him out there every five days for a few more turns before making a change.

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