Archive for Andrew Bailey

Mariano Rivera notched his 13th save on the season and the 621st of his career this afternoon as the Yankees clipped the Rockies, 3-1. The future Hall-of-Famer got two quick outs off the bats of Wilin Rosario and Nolan Arenado before plunking the third batter he faced, Jordan Pacheco. But the potential tying run, Josh Rutledge, grounded out to Jayson Nix to seal Colorado’s fate. The closer’s age and last year’s injury are clearly not a factor. Mariano is Mariano. Arguably (hardly) the best closer ever.

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Rafael Soriano untucked his shirt for the ninth time in ten chances this evening, and he did so facing some of the heaviest hitters — and most prolific whiffers — in the league today. The 33-year-old faced just one over the minimum — yielding a two-out single to Evan Gattis — en route to his 141st career save. Soriano induced consecutive groundouts to Justin Upton and Freddie Freeman, then got Dan Uggla to fly out to right-center with Gattis on first to end the game. Surprisingly, Soriano failed to record a strikeout against the Braves — who entered today with 255 strikeouts as a team, second most in the majors — causing his K% on the year to dip to 24%. And although Soriano may not be receiving the same attention as he did when pitching in the Big Apple, he’s quietly putting together another fine season, and continues to be a top ten closing option. Maybe all that Strasburg, Harper, Zimmermann talk is overshadowing him?

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Over the course of the next few weeks we will delve into the depths of the bullpens to identify potential middle relief targets, specifically, those relievers who appeal to owners in leagues that reward “holds.”

Andrew Bailey | RP | BOS

The oft-injured reliever struggled mightily in his first season in Boston — albeit, in just 15.1 innings (19 appearances) on the hill. His contributions were limited due to a damaged ulnar collateral ligament the right-hander suffered in a collision with a Pirates’ base runner while covering first in Spring Training. Bailey returned to the bump in mid-August, but failed to impress. The 18.9 K% and 10.8 BB% posted in that short time were both career lows. His velocity was up, but Bailey couldn’t hit the first strike (55.4% F-Strike%), miss bats (6.8% SwStr%) or induce ground balls (32.7% GB%) at rates he was previously accustomed to.

Based on Bailey’s struggles, the Red Sox went out and acquired Joel Hanrahan — from the Pirates, ironically — to take over ninth-inning duties. Despite the acquisition, Bailey and the Sox agreed to a one-year deal in the off-season for the righty to return to the Boston ’pen. This will give Bailey the opportunity to perform in situations that aren’t as high leverage, which could boost his confidence and potentially his trade value. Early indications suggest Bailey may share the setup duties with Koji Uehara, who was also brought in this winter, giving him the opportunity to tally some holds. If Bailey is dealt to a team in need of a bullpen arm, his role could increase, subsequently boosting his fantasy value. For now, Bailey is nothing more than a late-round dart for deep mixers or AL-Only leagues that reward holds + saves.

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• Derek Lowe picked up the traditional four inning save tonight for the Yankees. Yes, you read that correctly — four-inning save. In his debut for the Yankees, Lowe came on in relief of David Phelps in the sixth and dished four scoreless innings of two-hit ball while fanning four. For those youngsters out there, this was not Derek Lowe’s first career save. In fact, this was Lowe’s 86th career save and first regular season save since 2001 — almost 11 years to the day. It’s unlikely that Lowe will earn many more saves this year, but he could turn into an interesting rotation option for the Bronx Bombers should they need an extra arm.
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• Andrew Bailey struck out two batters in a scoreless inning of work today for the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox of the International League. In doing so, Bailey achieved one of the essential goals of his rehab assignment prior to returning to the Red Sox — pitching on back-to-back days. In five rehab outings, Bailey has surrendered just one earned run while posting a 9.0 K/BB. The Red Sox reliever isn’t quite sure where his next stop will be, but based on his successful rehab appearances, “he can’t see it being much longer.” In his stead, Alfredo Aceves has done a fine job, nailing down 23-of-29 save opportunities with a 4.21 ERA (4.32 xFIP) and a 2.43 K/BB. However, Aceves’ recent struggles — two blown saves and an 11.57 ERA in the last week — could mean that Bailey will be eased back into the closer’s role sooner than later.
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• Jason Motte rattled off three consecutive strikeouts in the top of the ninth today en route to his 22nd save of the season and a 7-4 Cardinals victory over the Hanleywood Dodgers. Motte has quietly collected those 22 saves in 26 chances this year and has now locked down nine consecutive opportunities. The Cardinals’ ninth inning man is sporting a fine 2.72 ERA (3.37 xFIP) and a 3.58 K/BB (25.9 K%, 7.2 BB%) on the year.
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• Besides Giants’ fans and those in holds leagues, has anyone noticed the season Sergio Romo is having? The guy has been filthy. Tonight he earned his fourth handshake of the season while lowering his ERA to 0.83. Romo is inducing swings-and-misses at an astronomical rate (18.7 SwStr%) which leads us to believe his 12.39 K/9 is more than real. Although Romo has only accumulated 21.2 innings on the bump, he’s sporting a FIP (1.82), xFIP (1.89) and SIERA (1.65) that indicate we may see a slight regression, but we’re likely going to see more of the same. At this point, Romo is owned in holds leagues and in shallower leagues with saves chasers. If by chance he’s available, I’d consider making the add to get a weekly boost from his ERA (0.83), WHIP (0.79) and the aforementioned strikeouts.
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• Alfredo Aceves needed just seven pitches to lock down his 18th save tonight in a 6-5 Red Sox victory over the Marlins. Boston’s current ninth inning man got off to a bit of a rocky start in his new role, earning just two saves in his first four chances with a 1.0 K/BB. However, since April 23rd (and entering today) Aceves has “converted 15-of-16 save opportunities with a 1.59 ERA.”

That was the good news for those who own shares of Alfredo Aceves in their fantasy leagues. Now on to the bad: Andrew Bailey threw 25 pitches in a bullpen session on Wednesday and is expected to do the same again on Friday. Bailey, who was acquired from the Oakland Athletics prior to this season, was to assume the closer’s role vacated by Jonathan Papelbon who signed with the Philadelphia Phillies. Unfortunately, Bailey suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb that required surgery on April 4th which has delayed the closer’s regular season debut for Boston. Barring any setbacks, Bailey looks to return “around” the All-Star Break. Now may not be a bad time to trade Aceves and/or add Bailey if possible in your league.
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Before the season started, I had a little heart-to-heart with myself about roster management. When I was writing a book last year, my editor gave me a piece of advice about certain segments of the manuscript that one might love, but just doesn’t work for one reason or another: “Sometimes, you just have to kill your babies,” she said.

I went into this season with full intent on applying that principle to my fantasy baseball roster. For too many years I’ve burned up a whole roster slot on a guy that I’m hoping will come back by the All Star Break or for the proverbial stretch run. I tend to fall in love with players and perhaps over-think what kind of value that player will give me at some undisclosed time in the future without considering what kind of value that extra roster spot will provide.

But no more.

Hi, my name is Michael, and I cut Andrew Bailey.

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When was the last time you saw a single position in fantasy take such a beating before the season even gets underway?  First there was the sudden change to Brett Myers in Houston.  Then Joakim Soria and Ryan Madson headed for the DL, each in need of Tommy John surgery.  Then Drew Storen had elbow issues and Frank Francisco needed his knee drained.  It’s been a disaster, right?

Well, now it gets worse as Andrew Bailey heads to the shelf for three to four months with thumb surgery and Kyle Farnsworth lands on the DL with elbow soreness.  The waiver wire has been a hotbed of action for the last few weeks and it’s getting even hotter with these next two guys…

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